Castaway
by Zondra Ray
Summary: AU: What will happen when four adults get stranded on an island with no way to contact others for help? Will they tear each other apart? Or will they get over their differences and learn to work together?
1. Chapter 1

"I don't get why he couldn't have flown with you!" Aunt Lauren whined over the phone, I rolled my eyes as I grabbed a small bag of pretzels and headed towards the register.

"I'm twenty-two, Lauren. I don't need my dad coming al the way to New York to just fly with me back to Puerto Rico. It's not needed." I gave the cashier a quick smile and handed her the money.

"Why did you guys have to go to Puerto Rico? I haven't seen you either, I think he's being really selfish for taking you when we all could—"

"I haven't seen my dad in almost two years, after this week I'll drive up and visit you. I have to go, I'll call you when I land. Bye!" I hung up before she could protest anymore. I couldn't blame her for being a little nervous about me traveling, for so long we had to be careful of me being in public for too long.

At the age of fifteen, I was diagnosed with stage one uterine cancer, it was caught in time before it got worse, but I still had to go through chemo and radiation. I was very close to getting a hysterectomy done, but thankfully they could remove the tumor without taking my whole uterus out. If I ever wanted to have children it would be close to impossible, if I had any eggs that weren't damaged from radiation, there would be a 2% chance of them actually attaching to my uterus.

I was happy that I was healthy and that I survived the scariest part of my life, and now I was in my third year of remission and I wasn't going to waste one second of it. I moved to NYC and started working on my own dreams— becoming a director! I got accepted into Columbia University and started growing into the person I wanted to be.

Aunt Lauren was not happy at all, she was terrified I would relapse and it would be worse. She became… attached. She'd call at least once a week sometimes she'd come and visit without letting me know and guilt me into hanging out with her instead of my friends. Once I turned twenty I put my foot down and said I needed space from her to grow on my own and not lean on her and my dad for everything.

My dad was proud of me and I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the two years of not feeling guilty if he missed Christmas or hadn't called me in almost six months. I was surprised when he called me last month about this vacation, he said it'd be his way of celebrating my twenty-first birthday— even though I turn twenty-three in two weeks. It was the thought that counts. Puerto Rico is amazing and it'd be nice to get out of the cold for a little while, even if it's only for a week.

I sighed as I sat down in the terminal, I hated traveling. I plugged my headphones in and blocked the rest of the world away, the people around me looked as tired as I felt. This was the last flight I needed to take before finally arriving in Puerto Rico, I was ready for a shower and a bed.

"Hello. Passengers of flight 284 bound for San Juan, there is a slight delay due to the inclement weather outside. We should be boarding in about two hours, thank you for your patience!" An announcement rang out and a collective groan from other passengers could be heard from a mile away. I sighed and took out my phone to let my dad know about the change of plans.

I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on my music, but the topic of the delay seemed to irk people to the point to where they felt the need to shout. It's not like the pilots can control the weather patterns or rush the storm to pass.

After two hours of waiting for the weather to clear up we were finally allowed to board, but that was after half of the people switched to a different flight. I could have just changed my flight for tomorrow and got a hotel for the night, but it seemed silly to not be able to wait two hours. I got up and stood behind a group of people who were also waiting to board, I was trying to no pay any attention to what they were saying, but they were loud.

"Tori, switch seats with Liz I need to talk to—" The male in front of me whispered to the women he was standing next to.

"Why? If anything you should switch with her so I can sit with my best friend!" She snapped, her long black hair nearly whipping me in the face as she turned to the guy. I could practically hear him roll his eyes as he let out the longest sigh known to man.

"I need to talk to you about something important, and it would be easier if you'd just switch seats with her. Please!" I watched as they stared at each other for the longest time as if they were having a telepathic conversation.

"Fine, but you owe me!"

"Of course!"

The black haired lady, Tori, walked over to a short, blonde who smiled instantly when she turned around. She must be Liz. I watched her explain why they needed to switch seats and Liz seemed completely fine by the news. Whatever the guy wanted to talk to Tori about must have been important because she did not seem like someone I would want to sit with for the next five hours.

People slowly started boarding, the smell of the airplane made my stomach clench, I was shocked to see how small the plane actually was. Maybe they got us a smaller one because of how many people switched? It only seated sixteen people… or maybe that was how many passengers booked this flight? Something in the back of my mind was saying this didn't look right, or maybe I was just nervous about flying for more than forty minutes… I shook my head and started looking for my seat, A3. A window seat… great.

I sat and pushed my bag under the seat and started to buckle, I glanced out the window to just see my reflection, it was pitched black outside. "Excuse me," I looked up to see the bubbly blonde from earlier, Liz. "I was just wondering if maybe you and I could switch seats? This is my first plane ride and I have never see the city lights from above and it—"

"Yeah sure, I hate the window seat anyway, it makes me feel claustrophobic!" I smiled and stepped out into the aisle, she scooted in quickly while the guy behind her grumbled about her being too slow. I would have considered it rude if Liz didn't smile and turn to the man. He was tall, and I mean really tall! I'm only five foot nothing so everything is tall, but he had to slightly hunch so his head didn't hit the ceiling.

"You need to relax, Derek, we will get there in time!" She giggled and looked out the window, I frowned and sat back into my seat. He must be part of the other two I overheard talking, he rolled his eyes and sat in the seat ahead of us. Liz turned to me and smiled holding out her head for me to take, "Sorry for my manners, I'm Liz!"

"I'm Chloe," I said grasping her hand, something in the back of my mind was screaming now. Once I let go it stopped, I forced a smile and took out my notebook. This was going to be a nerve-wracking flight, I could already tell.

I was thankful that Liz decided to chat with the guy behind us, Derek instead of me, my stomach was in knots and I wouldn't have been the greatest conversationalist. About two hours after we took off I was able to get some sleep, but my dreams were not helping the unsettling feeling I kept getting. It could be I was just nervous about seeing my dad after two years of being on my own?

I grumbled after another wave of turbulence woke me up, I looked at the time and sighed. There was still another two hours left of the flight, I looked around to see nearly everyone sleeping, except Derek. I turned back to my notebook and tried to write a scene that would work in this situation, but nothing was working! Growing frustrated I shut the book and shoved it back into my bag, it was better to quit now before it got worse.

"What were you writing?" I jumped and turned to the voice, Liz. Her long blonde hair was all over the place, it looked like she had gotten into a fight with a cat or something.

"Nothing really, just school stuff."

"High school? What grade are you in?" I blushed and pushed my hair behind my ear, this was more common than I would like. My height and maybe the fact that I had little to no curves made people assume I was still fifteen.

"I'm twenty-two… But I'm technically a Sophomore at Columbia, I took some time off for personal reasons."

"I wish I could go to college! I don't have the patience or the skill to really deal with that stuff. Simon, my boyfriend," she pointed to the blonde guy two seats ahead of us. "Went to Columbia too for drawing, he's really good! He's really smart too, but not as smart as Derek, he's practically a genius!" I saw Derek roll his eyes and turn back to whatever he was reading.

"He's Simons brother and my best friend, Tori, is their sister. That's how Simon and I met," She smiles at the memory and let out a small giggle. "Tori was furious when she found out about Simon and I. Do you have any siblings?"

"No, it's just me."

"I have a lot, but I don't see much of them anymore. I live too far away and they're too young to travel alone." She shrugged and whipped her hair into a ponytail, I looked down at my flimsy shoulder length hair. It took a long time for my hair to grow back and it still wasn't to the length I had it before cancer.

"Why are you going to San Juan?" I asked. Which seemed to make Liz smile even more—if that was even possible— she giggled and then cleared her throat and leaned in closer.

"Derek is getting married!" Her giggling was contagious and so I was following suit.

"Why are we laughing?"

"If you knew Derek you'd understand, he's a big, tough, mean looking guy!" She answered as if he wasn't sitting less than two feet away from us. "But I guess he won over her heart…" Liz burst out laughing to the point where she was in tears. "I'm totally kidding, his fiancée is a total bi—"

"Liz!" Derek growled from the seat in front of us, I shrieked back, but Liz just laughed harder.

"Derek, it's true and you're too blind to see it!"

"Liz this is not the time nor the place!"

"I'm just saying she is a spoiled brat, who couldn't have her wedding in America so she decided to drag _everyone_ to Puerto Rico!"

"Puerto Rico is part of America, Liz!" Derek grumbled and turned back around.

"That's beside the point, Derek! She's canceled and rehired the same stuff over and over again, she's rude to Simon and me! That should be number one reason to evaluate your choice! She whines if she doesn't get her way, and she…" Liz's face was turning red from her anger, I didn't know what to do other than sit there. This was clearly personal, but there was nowhere else to go without hearing it.

"She cheated on you, Derek," Liz whispered.

 **A/N: Okay, this is my first fanfiction ever... Please review and give me some advice and tell me how you like it!**

 **Also, I'm not a doctor or anything so I'm not 100% sure about the after effects of chemo and stuff, but it's just a story.**

 **Enjoy!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Sorry! I posted chapter one again on accident... But this is the REAL chapter two!**

 **Chapter Two**

Previously:

 _"I'm just saying she is a spoiled brat, who couldn't have her wedding in America so she decided to drag everyone to Puerto Rico!"_

 _"Puerto Rico is part of America, Liz!" Derek grumbled and turned back around._

 _"That's beside the point, Derek! She's canceled and rehired the same stuff over and over again, she's rude to Simon and me! That should be number one reason to evaluate your choice! She whines if she doesn't get her way, and she…" Liz's face was turning red from her anger, I didn't know what to do other than sit there. This was clearly personal, but there was nowhere else to go without hearing it._

 _"She cheated on you, Derek," Liz whispered. I barely heard it, so I was surprised to see Derek whip around and glare at her._

—

"No, she didn't!" He snarled.

"Yes, she did!" Liz yelled. "You can ask Simon! He found out, I begged him to tell you, but he couldn't. Then I asked Sam to tell you herself and she spat in my face, _literally_ spat!"

"Why the fu—" Derek looked over at me, his glare was so cold it felt like my blood drained from my whole body. I quickly looked away and fiddled with my bag, I would have loved to drown them out with my music, but my phone died an hour ago. I felt embarrassed for him and kinda irritated with Liz for dragging me into this. Also, why would you tell your boyfriends brother that his fiancée cheated on him while they were on their way to the wedding? It baffled me.

"Liz, sit next to me," Derek growled. I heard Liz mutter something and felt her stand up, I didn't have to do much for her to get past me so I just tucked my knees to my chest and waited. Even with them seated in front of me and whispering I could still hear them perfectly clear.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier? I can't land and call off the wedding right now!"

"Derek, I tried to tell you, but every time I got close to you Sam would whisk you away! I'm surprised she didn't demand that you fly with her, but then again it was probably her way of having one last fling before —"

"Liz!"

"Sorry! You use to be so observant and keen of this kind of crap! How it got past you beats me… so what are you going to do now?"

"I have no clue. Who was it with?"

"I— Der—"

"Liz! Tell me _now_!"

"Liam…" She whispered. I heard Derek take a sharp breath and curse. Liam must have been someone close to him or else to wouldn't have hurt.

"I'm really sorry, I can go get Simon if you want…"

"No, just go back to your seat."

"Okay," Liz stood up and as she stepped into the aisle we hit a bad patch of turbulence, the worst yet. Liz fell to the ground with a loud thud, I was about to stand up to see if she was okay when I felt the plane start to nosedive. My stomach was in my throat and everyone was screaming around me, Liz was no longer on the floor near me.

I couldn't tell you what happened next, but I know for sure that it hurt a lot. My head hit the seat in from of me when the plane crashed. The screaming ceased and was replaced by eery silence. What happened? I couldn't see a thing in the darkness and when I tried to touch my face my hand wouldn't move. What the hell was happening? Am I dead?

—

"Wake up!" A voice boomed over me, shaking me slightly.

"Why did you grab _her_? Where's Liz? Why didn't you get her!" A female whined.

"I couldn't find her! She fell before the plane went down!"

"But you picked a twelve-year-old kid to save? What the hell, Derek!"

"Tori, you're not helping! She's still breathing… Liz was — Just help Simon paddle!" The male voice declared. I couldn't tell where we were, but I was shivering uncontrollably—and wet.

"Come on kid wake up!" Another shake of my shoulder, I tried to open my eyes with all my might. I was met with deep green eyes inches from mine, they seemed to light up when he saw me, but it quickly faded. "She's up!"

"Good. More help to fucking push this stupid raft!"

"Yeah, because you're doing much to help, Tori!" The blonde male snapped. I tried to sit up and was pushed down roughly.

"I wouldn't move if I were you, you hit your head hard," he grumbled. I looked around us, the ocean was roaring beside us and the stars shined brightly in the darkness. I panicked, we crashed! I was on a plane and now I'm in the middle of the ocean with people I didn't know!

"What the fuck happened?" I asked.

"Hey! Strong words for a kid like you!" I glared in the direction of Tori, I had no idea if it was effective or not, but I was getting tired of being taken as a child.

"I'm not a k-kid!" I shivered.

"Okay, teenager whatever!"

"I'm twenty-two! Can someone please tell me what happened?"

"We crashed and now we are stranded in the middle of the ocean!" Tori screamed, "Liz is dead, but _you_ survived! If you stayed in your desired seats she would still be alive!"

"I didn't make her switch seats, she wanted to sit near the window! If Derek didn't make her get up then she would probably still be alive!" I spat back.

"Both of you shut up! Arguing is not going to help us!"

"Shut up Simon! Your girlfriend was killed, you were going to propose this weekend! Why aren't you pissed?" Tori turned on Simon who only stared blankly.

"Tori!" Derek hissed, he looked beyond mad.

"What? What the fuck are we supposed to do with a raft that can barely go over the waves without tipping over? Do you really think we can paddle our way back to land?"

"Tori just shut the hell up!"

"No!"

"Tori, please calm down!" Simon interrupted, putting a hand on her shoulder. She turned toward him and silently looked into his eyes and then nodded. She crawled to the corner of the raft and tucked her knees to her chest. We all sat in an eery silence as the raft drifted farther and farther from the plane.

I fingered my pendant and nervously looked around, Tori was right. What the hell were we going to do? We had no food, no water and stranded in the middle of the ocean. I shivered and bit my bottom lip to quiet down my chattering teeth. Only four people survived out of the eight passengers on the plane… I shivered again thinking how close I came to dying. Aunt Lauren was going to freak out and blame my dad for this whole crash, if he didn't insist on meeting in Puerto Rico then I'd be safe in my dorm. I know my dad didn't need anymore guilty than he already had, he felt horrible about my mom's death and not being able to take more than three weeks off when I became sick. I understood, but with Lauren's nagging and degrading it only made things worse.

I swallowed my whimpers and laid my head on my knees. The raft wasn't that big, but we all seemed to find our own spaces and kept to ourselves. We all survived a horrific crash and they all lost someone close to them. I felt bad for Simon who lost his girlfriend, and if he was planning on proposing then that must have meant they were really serious… Duh.

I could never imagine losing someone I was… intimate with. With my looks, I never had guys lining up to get with me, other than some creepy guys. I've only had one boyfriend and that was right before cancer, but clearly being fifteen with a sick girlfriend wasn't 'cool.' Having cancer wasn't the greatest either… In other words, I have never been intimate with anyone, not even a kiss. I couldn't risk getting sick while I was in chemo and radiation, and I've been too focused on school that I never had a big social life. I'll probably never get to experience it, being stranded in the middle of the ocean doesn't really set the mood. _ugh, shut up Chloe!_

Thinking negative will not help anything, it would only freak me out more! I wrapped my thin sweatshirt tightly around me in efforts to block out the wind, it wasn't working that well. I was sure my lips were turning blue from being so cold and my back was sore from shivering. I wanted a nice, warm bath or just maybe be snuggled in my lumpy dorm bed… I just wanted to be home. I wanted my dad, I wanted my aunt, but most of all I wanted to survive… —

A bright light brought me out of my slumber, I wiped at my eyes and grimaced. I must have cut my forehead when we crashed or something, it was rough to the touch and very sore. I looked around and saw no change from last night, we were really in the middle of the flipping ocean!

"Oh look, sleeping beauty has awakened!" Tori snapped. I looked over at her and saw her red puffy eyes and flattened hair —she looked miserable. "Are you sure you're twenty-two? Your face looks like a fifteen-year-old who hasn't gotten sleep in a month and your body is …" She gave me a once over and sneered. "At least twelve."

"I—"

"Will you stop it, Tori? We don't have time to argue over crap that doesn't matter!" Simon snapped.

"Whatever."

We fell into an uncomfortable silence, I looked over at Derek who was looking over the edge of the raft. We all looked miserable, but he looked the worst. He was going to miss his own wedding, but he probably didn't want to marry her with what he just found out. Simon seemed to notice Derek's discomfort and shifted closer to him, I couldn't hear what he was saying, but Derek just shrugged.

I shifted uncomfortably as my legs started to cramp, I needed to stand and stretch, but that was impossible right now. I was growing frustrated with the looks Tori was giving me and the uncomfortable sun rays, I looked over the edge and watched the waves pass. It was surprisingly relaxing, I had no idea how long I was looking, but when the normal dark green started to slowly turn light blue I sat up straighter.

I looked back at the group in the raft, Simon and Tori were passed out again and Derek was still looking over the edge. He seemed to notice it too and stood on his knees looking out into the distance.

"What?" I asked. He jumped and looked back at me and then back out into the ocean.

"The water is turning lighter, which has to mean it's getting shallow — and," he paused and then smiled. "That means land!" He pointed and I followed his finger to the island coming up in the distance. "Simon, Tori wake up!" He grabbed one of the ores and started paddling us forward, Simon jumped into action when he saw our destination.

We were saved.

 **A/N** **Thank you for the reviews! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

 **A/N: Okay, so this is to just lay out a timeline, I remember in the DP series it was taking place in April & Chloe turned 15 in last month so — March. **

**SO … the fanfic is taking place in March**

 **Chloe is 22 almost 23**

 **Simon & Tori are both 23 **

**Derek is 24**

 **Also, it's rated M b/c of language ….**

 **—**

 _Previously…._

 _I looked back at the group in the raft, Simon and Tori were passed out again and Derek was still looking over the edge. He seemed to notice it too and stood on his knees looking out into the distance._

 _"What?" I asked. He jumped and looked back at me and then back out into the ocean._

 _"The water is turning lighter, which has to mean it's getting shallow — and," he paused and then smiled. "That means land!" He pointed and I followed his finger to the island coming up in the distance. "Simon, Tori wake up!" He grabbed one of the ores and started paddling us forward, Simon jumped into action when he saw our destination._

 _We were saved._

—

Paddling against the waves was harder than I realized. We'd get over one and it would look like we were moving forward, but then another wave would come and pull us farther out back. The water was freezing even with the sun beating down on us, my thin sweater was now sticking to my body as we tried to move forward. Derek ordered Tori to help Simon with paddling and me, I was ordered to just sit back and not get the way.

Okay, he didn't say it in those exact words, but I knew what he meant. He didn't know what to think of me yet, for all he knows I could be some psychotic murderer who wants them all dead. He was being cautious… or so I kept telling myself that. I watched as the other three worked together, Simon and Tori looked similar but different at the same time. It was weird how they seemed to have these telepathic conversations, they would just look at each other and they would know what the other one was talking about. It was kind of nerve-wracking, they could plot my murder and I would never know. _Yeah, okay, Chloe. Telepathic people… that only happens in movies._

"Why does she get to just sit and watch? We are doing all the hard work and sh—"

"Tori, will you focus on this right now!" Simon yelled over the waves.  
"She probably can't even pick up the ore from being so weak!" Tori giggled and gave me the evil eye before turning back to paddling. I've dealt with bitchy women, but Tori must be the definition of bitch… or maybe even the C word. Either way, I've never met a woman drag down another one because she wasn't womanly enough? I can't help the way my body was made or how it reacted to the chemo, I can wish for bigger breasts and a curvier torso, but it would never happen.

I was so lost in thought I didn't even realize how shallow the water had become until the bottom of the boat scraped against it. I looked up to see Derek in knee deep water tugging the boat up the beach, Simon and Tori were still paddling us forward. I looked over the edge and grimaced, the water may be knee deep for Derek, but on me, it'd be up to my hips.

"Okay, I got it from here, just get out and swim to the beach," Derek said pointing to the rocky beach ahead. I cursed a million times in my head as I looked over the edge, I was not the greatest swimmer. Tori and Simon jumped in and I was the only one left on the boat, I knew this was only going to fuel Tori's taunting of me looking like a fifteen-year-old and that I can't swim. I squeezed my eyes shut and plunged in when m feet hit the ground I was grateful, my head was still over the water. I walked up the small embankment and took a moment to breathe, walking in water up to your chest in clothing was not easy.

I wrung out my sweater the best I could without actually taking it off if I did that I would just get more crap from Tori. I rolled up my jeans to my knees and shook out the water trapped in my sneakers and wrung out my socks. I looked over at Simon who seemed to be arguing with Tori once again. Did she have to argue with everyone? I sighed and put my feet back into my wet sneakers without my sock—gross.

"Okay, now what's our plan?" Tori snapped at someone behind me, I didn't have to turn to know it was Derek.

"We look for a hotel or someone who can help us," he said as he headed towards the woods. Simon and Tori exchanged glances and we quickly followed behind.

—

My feet started to kill after thirty minutes of walking, tripping over nearly every branch wasn't helping my case either. Derek grew impatient after my last fall —which sliced my knee open— and forced me to walk ahead of the group, he didn't want me to 'get lost' or whatever.

We had been walking for nearly an hour and haven't seen one person or even a road. Tori whined endlessly the whole walk, complaining about the bugs and how hot it was. I don't know how anyone could stand being friends with her, Derek seemed to be immune to it and Simon…well, he was lost in his own world.

"Derek there's no one here! We would have come across a road or some sign of a human being here!" Tori exclaimed. "We need to stop and make a shelter before the bugs come back and eat us all!"

Derek looked back at us and nodded. "We should stay close to the beach just in case we see a boat or a plane…" He ran a hand over his mouth and looked around.

"It would have been easier to stay on the boat, a plane would see us and come and save us!" Tori whined.

"Then we would have fewer chances of surviving! We wouldn't have food, water or shelter from the sun!" I said. I was getting really sick and tired of her complaints.

"What would you know? You're twelve!"

"I may look twelve, but at least I don't act like it!" I snapped.

"Tori cut the shit!" Simon grumbled.

"Why are you always taking her side!"

"Because you've been a complete bitch to her for no reason! It's not her fault that Liz died, and it's not Derek's. Stop blaming other people for shit they can't control!" Tori looked bewildered for a brief second and then she was attacking Simon. Slapping him and pushing him until he was cornered against a tree. Derek acted fast and pulled her off of him as she screamed bloody murder.

"Stop fighting my battles, Derek!" Tori yelled.

"Stop fighting people who are trying to help!" he growled. He put her down once she stopped struggling, Simon gave her a quick glance and moved closer to me. Like I could protect him from her… yeah, right.

"Okay, we need to get a bunch of wood and leaves for a shelter, plus some wood for a fire. Make sure the leaves are big enough to use for walls," he looked between the three of us and sighed. "Tori you're with me, Simon go with…" He raised his eyebrow and looked at me.

"Chloe," I said.

"Simon go with Chloe, try and find some drinking water. Go farther inland and try and remember the path, meet us near the boat." I heard Tori grumble as Simon and I walked away. We walked in silence for awhile, I made sure to not trip over the stupid branches or rocks. I didn't want to be any more of a burden than I already was.

"You might want to clean that up, it could get infected and…" Simon pointed to my knee and winced. "We might have to amputate it. Dull tools and no antiseptic!" He smiled at my reaction, I looked down at my knee to see blood steadily flowing down my leg.

"Damn, I thought it was just a scrape!" I sat on a rock and inspected the gash. I had no idea what I was doing, but that moment I wished for Aunt Lauren more than anything. Simon ripped off a sleeve of his shirt and tied it tightly around my knee.

"That should help it until we get to the water, which should be soon." He looked up at the trees and sighed, even with the heavy branches the sun was still shining heavily through. We continued walking and every fifteen feet or so Simon would carve a plus into a tree, it was his way of keep track of the trail.

"I'm sorry about Liz… I didn't know her at all, but for the two hours that I did she seemed nice."

"Thanks, I guess it hasn't really hit me that she's gone…and I'm sorry for my sister. She's like to a lot of people and my dad tried to help her out with her issues, but it didn't seem to do much."

"She's your sister?"

"Yeah, my twin." He stopped and cocked his head to the right, after a couple of seconds of listening he smiled. "I think we found water!" We quickly walked toward the sound and if it wasn't for Simon's quick eye I would have fallen off a fifteen-foot cliff into a body of water. To our left as a raging river that quickly turned into a roaring waterfall, and that fell into a lake.

"That was close! You're awfully clumsy!"

"Yeah, tell me about it… How do we get down there? The river is too strong for us to go in!"

"We must have gone uphill when we were walking, it didn't feel like it though." We headed back the way we came and followed the plus signs, when it seemed like we were on flat land again we headed east, towards the lake. This time, Simon put a star on the trees to direct us back to the pluses. Eventually, we came up to a clearing that brought us to the lake.

"Drinking water!" Simon exclaimed and ran towards it, I sat on a rock that was meters from the water and took off the shirt-bandage. The bleeding had ceased but the gash was pretty deep, I must have fallen pretty hard to have received such a cut. I kicked off my shoes and walked into the water.

Once the water reached below my knees I stopped and braced for the stinging. It would have been a lot more sanitary if we had soap and a million band-aids. I was definitely just a city girl because nature and I did not get along at all. I tripped over my own feet on a flat surface, bugs swarm around me no matter what time of day, it was something I did not enjoy at all.

"It's looking a lot better, here, have my other sleeve." He joked as he ripped the other part of his shirt and tied it tightly around my knee. "We should probably gather some wood and leaves before Derek come hunting us down."

"Does he do that a lot?"

"Do what?

"Boss people around? He seems … like the bossy type." I asked.

"Nah, that's just his older brother role," Simon said as he helped me stand up, the bandage was tighter than before.

"Wait, he's your brother? You guys look nothing alike," I questioned.

"He's adopted. He moved in with Tori, my dad and me when he was five and took on the older brother role pretty easily."

"How old are you guys?"

"Tori and I are twenty-three and Derek just turned twenty-four," He gathered a bunch of palm tree leaves and handed me some.

"Was Tori and Liz close?"

"Oh yeah, defiantly. Tori was how I met Liz and we were friends for a long time and then freshman year of college we started dating. I was planning on proposing this weekend after Derek's wedding, but…" Now he can't.

"Sorry if this is intrusive, but what was she like?" Simon instantly broke into a wide grin.

"She is the most happy-go-lucky person I have ever met! She tries to see the good in any bad situation, I know that if she was here with us right now, she would be calming Tori down instantly. She would be planting tiny seeds of optimism inside our brains, she has her ways of calming people without even trying." his gaze went off into the distance and his smile disappeared. I noticed how he used present tense when he talked about her, she was still alive to him. "So, what about you? You got anyone out there who's going to miss you?" he asked.

"Just my aunt and dad.."

"No boyfriend?"

"No," I giggled, imagine a guy worried about me? Yeah right, they steered clear of me as if I had the black plague. "What about your dad?" I asked as we reached the beach with arms full of sticks. In the distance, we could see Derek and Tori arguing while trying to organize the length of sticks.

"It's just us three. Dad went missing years ago and we haven't seen him since, Liz's family was like a second family to all of us. Well, except for Derek. He kept to himself until he met Sam, but that's something we all wished never happened." He walked ahead of me towards to arguing siblings as I stay back and observed them all. I was an outsider to these people, they didn't know me and I didn't know them. They could decide to kick me off the island if need be or decide that there isn't enough food for all four of us and murder me… _Oh, shut up, Chloe! Your imagination is going on overdrive right now!_

I shook the creepy thoughts from my head and started walking towards the group. I may not know any of these people, but one thing I know is that Tori is unhinged. She could be dangerous and if I wanted to survive then I need to watch out for her.

 **AN: I hope you're enjoying the story! Please, read and review, tell me what you liked and didn't like!**

 **I'm going to try and upload every Wednesday but I might miss a couple weeks because my boyfriend deploys soon and I want to spend as much time as I can with him.**

 **I have a lot planned for this story, I'm excited I hope you guys are too**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 **AN: Disclaimer I don't own DP**

 **I have no idea if yucca is found on a tropical island, but it's called fiction for a reason. Also the procedure I was trying to explain, you can watch on youtube— 'How to make yucca rope'— it's a pretty cool process!**

 **( Rated M for language )**

 **Sorry, this chapter is short, my bf is on call for when he leaves so I'm trying to spend time with him. BUT the next chapter will be longer, I promise!**

 _Previously…_

 _"It's just us three. Dad went missing years ago and we haven't seen him since, Liz's family was like a second family to all of us. Well, except for Derek. He kept to himself until he met Sam, but that's something we all wished never happened." He walked ahead of me towards to arguing siblings as I stay back and observed them all. I was an outsider to these people, they didn't know me and I didn't know them. They could decide to kick me off the island if need be or decide that there isn't enough food for all four of us and murder me… Oh, shut up, Chloe! Your imagination is going on overdrive right now!_

 _I shook the creepy thoughts from my head and started walking towards the group. I may not know any of these people, but one thing I know is that Tori is unhinged. She could be dangerous and if I wanted to survive then I need to watch out for her._

—

"This is ridiculous!" Tori whined and pushed away another strand of yucca. I honestly don't think Tori could go one second without complaining. I rolled my eyes and watched as Derek stripped away the fibers from the plant. I didn't really understand what he was saying when he explains it all, but it was cool to watch. He effortlessly peeled away the leafs from the root and used the rock to separate the strands. Once he was done separating them he would then handsome to each of us to start twisting until it was a rope like substance.

It reminded me of the professional wig-making process, you had to mix a bunch of different colored hairs to get the color you actually desired. To do that they took three big strands of different tones and pulled them through what looked like a big brush, and eventually the three tones would make a natural hair color. I watched numerous videos when I was debating on getting a wig, —I decided not to and just embraced my baldness— but watching the process was always insightful.

When we had seventy or so rope strands Derek sent Tori and Simon out to go look for some food. Tori, of course, put up a fight and wanted me to go instead, but I could barely walk two feet ahead of me without tearing the cut open. So, I was on leaf duty, which meant I had to weave the leafs together to fill in the areas between the sticks to create a solid wall—kind of like braiding.

We needed three walls big enough to allow all four of us in and tall enough for Derek to at least stand. Derek had planned on having the 'tent' opening face the ocean just in case we happen to see a ship passing or a plane overhead.

Hopefully, the word about the plane going down has finally gotten to our family and they were starting a search party. We couldn't be that far from where the crash happened, the water wasn't that rough last night… I don't think. I _was_ knocked out for the majority of the raft ride.

I was growing antsy after the long half hour of silence, I was already done the leaf walls and already gone through it twice to make sure nothing was loose. Derek stood over the stick structure and kept looking into the woods, maybe he needed more sticks or yucca plant? Tori and Simon have been gone for awhile, but it was hard to find a five-star meal on a deserted island. I could picture it now, Tori complaining and shutting down everything Simon suggested. I would hate to be in his place.

"Chloe," I jumped at the sound of my name and turned to Derek. He stood there looking at me as if I was crazy and then turned back to the sticks. "I'm going to need your help with tying this to the tree, it's taller than me and Tori is taking forever." He picked up the already connected walls and leaned it against the tree, I could see where I had to tie it, but I wasn't sure if I had the strength to do so. Plus being onto of his shoulders would be kind of weird—like I said, I'm not used to being close to a man.

I hesitated as I walked up beside him, he seemed a lot taller than before, or maybe I was just losing my mind. He got to his knees and motioned for me to start clubbing up. I took a deep breath and placed my foot on his knee and swung the other one up. He stood up too fast and I had to grab ahold of something which happened to be his hair.

"Ow!" he growled.

"Sorry!" I let go once I steadied myself, he slowly walked toward the tree and held tightly onto my calves. I looked out at the ocean and smiled, if we weren't stranded and fighting for survival this would be a good vacation spot. "So this is what it's like to be tall," I whispered. Derek grunted and kept on walking until we reached the tree, he then handed up three yucca ropes and instructed me how to tie it and to make sure it was secure. Once I was done checking he made me check again and then handed me another set of strings and do a second loop… and check it twice.

"After you tie that one just go over the others to make sure they're tight." He said as I finished the last check, I sighed and rolled my eyes, but it wasn't like I had a choice. It was a six-foot drop from where I was and the sand wasn't that soft, plus he could just hold me in place until I did as he said. I tightened every strand and made sure I Derek knew how tight I was trying to pull it, on the last one I pulled too tight and sliced my palm open.

"Fuck!" I screamed and grabbed hold of my palm, thankfully it wasn't bleeding, but it sure did hurt.

"What?"

"The stupid rope burnt me!" I whined as I tried to cool to off. I heard Derek sigh and before I knew it I was on my own feet. He pulled me to the ocean and before I could do anything he stuck it in, I yelped and tried to pull it away.

"Don't! Just clean it and then I'll look at it." I glared at him but did what I was told. He was treating me like a five-year-old, I could take care of myself, I have been for the past two years, no help from dad or aunt Lauren. Once he was satisfied with my cleaning efforts he grabbed my hand and examined it.

"You're the most accident prone person, over ten, that I have ever met." He mumbled, I rolled my eyes and watched him inspect the cut. "It's just a burn, it'll be fine without any bandage." He turned back to the shelter and sighed, I knew what he was thinking. We had long ways to go before this was suitable to sleep in and the sun was setting in two hours.

"Will you be okay on tying the leafs on?"

"S'not like I have a choice," I mumbled and headed over to the pile of leafs, we had to tie them all onto the structure, it didn't have to be as tight as the sticks, but tight enough to make sure they stayed on. Derek kneeled once again and I climbed up onto his shoulders, this time with no hair pulling. Tying the leafs were easier than the sticks and quicker before I knew it we were on the last part of the wall. Thank god, because shoulders are not very comfortable.

"You know you're still engaged right?" I nearly fell off Derek when Tori came into view, it had been so peaceful without her here. "Imagine if Sam was here, she would tear Chloe apart." Tori dropped a bunch of bananas in front of us and laid out on the sand.

"If she wanted shelter then she wouldn't have complained." Derek tried to turn his head to look around, but instead got an eyeful of my thigh. I finished the last leaf strand and allowed Derek to put me down, as my feet touched the ground my legs nearly gave out. Derek looked around and frowned. "Where's Simon?" he asked.

"Dunno, he said to go ahead so I did. I'm not staying in that big infested forest longer than I have to!"

"What took you guys so long? It's been two hours!"

"Well, for starters Simon had a huge meltdown when we were walking, it took me thirty minutes to just get him to stand! Secondly, it was hard to get bananas from a thirty-foot tree!" Tori rolled her eyes and leaned against the tree before Derek had any time to argue back at her Simon came out of the forest with a handful of coconuts.

"Hey, bro!" He smiled and dumped his collection at the foot of the shelter. "Nice work! There are a bunch of berries back there, but I had nothing to carry them in, so what I was thinking is carve the coconut out and use them as bowls?" He looked up at Derek and smiled.

"Okay, we'll have to put them somewhere so the animals don't get to them."

"What kind of animals?" Tori screeched.

"Monkeys… maybe even bears." Derek said.

"Bullshit!" Tori mumbled and looked around the entrance of the woods.

"I heard that if you draw a circle and stay in it then they can't get you," I said. Simon smiled and quickly joined.

"It has to be a circle! If it's an oval it won't work, also try not to scream like a chimpanzee — it attracts them!" Simon joked, and I giggled. Derek seemed lost and shrugged it off, but the look on Tori's face was priceless.

 **AN: Filler chapters are hard to write, plus I've been crazy busy and completely stressed!**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!**

 **Remember to review! It's just nice to hear how you guys are liking the story!**

 **(It was a Spongebob reference on the last part if you didn't get it)**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

 _Previously…_

 _"What kind of animals?" Tori screeched._

 _"Monkeys… maybe even bears." Derek said._

 _"Bullshit!" Tori mumbled and looked around the entrance of the woods._

 _"I heard that if you draw a circle and stay in it then they can't get you," I said. Simon smiled and quickly joined._

 _"It has to be a circle! If it's an oval it won't work, also try not to scream like a chimpanzee — it attracts them!" Simon joked, and I giggled. Derek seemed lost and shrugged it off, but the look on Tori's face was priceless._

 **Disclaimer: I do not own DP**

 **Thank you for the reviews! They mean a lot to me!**

 **AN: I'm uploading a couple hours earlier because I have no wifi right now and for some reason, it's working right now...**

* * *

Derek started a fire while Simone started cutting the coconuts. Ever so often Tori would sneak a look back into the forest and I swear her fingers were itching to draw a circle. She couldn't actually believe it's true… she had to have seen Spongebob at least once in her lifetime. Well, the only reason I was aware of the sea bear was from being in the hospital for months on end and the other kids were obsessed with the songs. So I couldn't really blame her for not knowing.

"How are we going to get rescued?" Tori asked looking behind her shoulder once again. "I mean we are in the middle of nowhere!"

"We will build an SOS thing and do a smoke signal… someone will have to see it if they fly over." Simon interrupted while scooping out a huge chunk of coconut.

"What if no one flies over! That's the problem! We will be trapped here!" Tori screamed and kicked her feet, which threw sand all over the opened coconuts. Simon took a deep breath and looked up at her.

"Was that really necessary, Tori? Acting like a five-year-old won't help us any more than before. Someone will come looking for us, the plan went missing with eight other people on it, they won't just push it aside!" Simon argued. I watched the two of them battle each other out—which must happen often because Derek didn't seem one bit bothered.

He just sat there poking the fire with a stick lost in thought. We couldn't be stuck on the island, someone had to be looking for us right now. Simon was right, too many people went down on that plane for the media to push it aside.

"Tori shut up. We will be fine!" Derek snapped. Tori shut her mouth and I watched as it twisted from fear to anger in less than a second. She slowly turned on him and slapped him hard on the arm.

"Do not tell me to shut up! I can have my feelings and I can voice them!" She panted, close to tears. I kept my gaze down as the three of them started arguing—maybe being stranded with siblings was no the greatest thing. People are going to argue naturally, but siblings knew exactly what to say to push you over the edge.

I don't know how long they argued for, the topic of the argument kept on changing and I was getting tired of it. If I ever get off this island I am going to personally thank dad for not having any more kids after me. He dated for awhile, but it never got serious and the majority of the women just wanted his money. If he ever did remarry to a gold digging bitch, I'd most likely be shipped to boarding school, because that happens in every movie I have seen. I snapped out of my daydream to see that they were still fighting and it had gotten physical.

"Will you just drop it? She is dead and I can't do anything about it! I'm not going to sit and wish she was in this alive and in this mess too!" Simon cried. Tori was on top of him with her knee digging into his chest while Derek nursed his eye.

"Maybe if you protected her like you were supposed to then she would still be here!" Tori growled.

"Then you would have been dead!"

"No! Chloe would be!" She pointed over in my direction and all three pairs of eyes turned on me—it was like they all forgot I was there.

"I had nothing to do with Liz's death, I didn't make her get out of her seat or switch seats in the first place." I stood my ground and glared back at Tori.

"Can we just move on and figure out how to get off this island?" Simon said breaking our glare off.

"Let's get rocks, they have to be big enough to be able to see from above," Derek stood up and looked around. "Dump them at the tree over there." He said pointing out the large palm tree a couple hundred feet away. We all nodded and I headed in a different part of the forest, I didn't want to be her Tori right now, but I didn't want to be too far from everyone else. "Chloe!"

"What?" I turned sharply towards Derek.

"Stay here in case someone comes." I looked at the ocean and then back at Derek, he clearly wanted me out of the way and was too much of a pansy to say so.

"I highly doubt anyone is going to show, but whatever," I grumbled as I walked back to the log I was previously sitting on.

"I get enough shit from Tori, I don't need any from you!" He growled before following Simon and Tori. I stuck my tongue out and flipped him off as he turned his back to me.

"Real mature." He yelled without even looking back. How the hell did he see that? Only parents and teachers had that weird sixth sense thing… and I highly doubt he was either of those things. Although they both would explain why he's so bossy, he had to be stern to get kids to take him seriously. If I remembered correctly, Simon said he had just turned twenty-four, and I knew people who had three kids at that age. It was plausible… maybe that's why he was getting married to Sam when everyone hated her?

I sighed and started digging my feet into the sand, it was nice and cool underneath. I saw something dark move in my peripheral vision and when I moved to get a closer look I was in awe. A bunch of tiny sea turtles were crawling in their egg den, desperately trying to get out. I quickly got on my hands and knees and started pushing the sand aside to make a path for them.

I was one step ahead of them—moving the mountains of sand out of their way— as they raced their way down to the ocean. When one got off track I would swiftly move them back onto the trail, their tiny fins trying to get them to the water. They were so tiny and cute! I giggled as I watched one climb on top of another and tumble on its back, I flipped him over and set him back onto the trail.

I followed them all until they were in the ocean, the tide safely swallowing them up. I read a long time ago that the moms buried the eggs and then never see her babies again. I watched as they all quickly swam away, I laid my hand down underwater and watched as one swam onto it. They felt like… velvet—silky smooth, but hard on top.

No wonder they had so many predators, they probably tasted good too. I shuddered at the thought of eating a poor innocent creature. I could never do it—even if I was starving to death— I would just bawl my eyes out. I gently put the turtle back into the water and watched it swim after it's brothers and sisters. Maybe fighting was just one con out of a million pros about having siblings. I walked deeper into the water and watched the turtles swim around me, I don't understand why the mom wouldn't come back for them? They are so cute!

"Chloe!" I jumped and spun to see Simon holding a handful of rocks, he dropped them near the tree and came running over to me. "What are you-" he stopped short and stood watched in awe at the turtles. "Are they suppose to surround you like that?"

"I don't know, I helped them get to the water so maybe they're thanking me or something…" I put my hand under again and felt the familiar silky bottom, this time two climbed on. I seriously don't think this has ever happened before!

"Whoa," Simon breathed out as he slowly made his way over to me, his fingers gently stroked one of the turtles back. "That is so cool! They probably think you're their mom? Some animals imprint like that."

"I doubt it. Their instincts are to get away from the shallow water because of predators, but the sun is setting so that could have a part of it." I put the turtles back in the water and watched them swim along with the others.

"There's probably crazy amounts of tropical animals in there," he said pointing to the deeper part of the ocean.

"Yeah, and sharks…" I shuddered and turned back to the beach, Simon chuckled and followed.

"They won't hurt you unless you look like a seal," he looked over at me and his smile widened. "You don't look anything like a one so it's safe to say you're fine." Before I could reply Derek beckoned us to meet near the tree as we scurried to do as he said I kind of wondered why we all automatically listened to him. I mean Tori and Simon knew him and all, but what makes him qualified to tell us what to do?

"How many rocks did you collect?" His question was directed towards Simon, who was breathing heavily from walking up the steep embankment.

"I dunno, about an armful… where's Tori?"

"Bathroom break," Derek muttered as he collected the rocks together, his brows furrowed as he shook his head. "We don't have enough to build one tonight, the sun is setting and I don't want any of us to get lost in there." I looked at the setting sun and back at the ocean, I could still see a couple black tiny dots, the turtles were still swimming around.

"We can collect more rocks tomorrow morning, so for now let's just eat and then go to bed," Simon said. Derek seemed to agree as he lead us back to the campsite, Tori was already sitting by the fire when we arrived.

"Where are your rocks?" Derek asked.

"By the tent thing, I wasn't going to walk all the way over there when I saw you guys coming back, plus it's not enough to do much with anyway."

"I'll be the judge of that!" Derek grumbled as he laid out on the sand while Simon handed out some of the fruit he collected. My appetite was non-existent, but I forced down a couple of bananas anyway. Before we went into the shelter, Derek took the tarp from the raft and laid it out on the sand for extra bedding. Then it was off to bed, no ifs, ands or buts.

I've had sleepovers before when I was younger—but never with guys. So you can imagine my discomfort. I was now sleeping in between two guys I met yesterday, of course, we were not even close to touching, but it was still uncomfortable.

I just hoped that with today's activities I would pass out and totally forget about my situation, but instead, my brain decided it was the perfect time to think back on all those Law and Order: SVU episodes I binged watched. Every time I closed my eyes I pictured myself in the interrogation room with Detective Benson grilling me for answers when I clearly couldn't say anything—because my mouth was glued shut.

Thankfully I wasn't the only one who was having trouble sleeping, but at least I was keeping it to myself. Tori sat near the wall of the shelter whining about every little thing.

"I can't sleep! The ground is too lumpy and it's too quiet!"

"Well, you're making it too loud!" Simon snapped. I sighed and moved onto my right side, so I was now facing Derek's back—well what I could see of it anyway. I squeezed my eyes shut and blocked everything else out other than the ocean, I pictured myself with the sea turtles floating along the waves.

* * *

"Move it to the right. Chloe! Move-" Derek grumbled and pushed me aside—not even a tiny bit softly— and started moving my side of the rocks. I hobbled out of the way and watched as he angrily moved the rocks two inches to the right. I couldn't help but roll my eyes, he was the worst leader I have ever met, leaders are supposed to be patient and take in what others have to say. Instead, he just bitches at us for not being fast enough and shuts down whatever I have to say.

We've been working on the stupid SOS sign for over two hours, he wasn't happy with how big it was or who crooked it looked. Tori and Simon finished their part of the sign long ago, and here I was sweating buckets in my t-shirt and jeans, trying to do everything this asshole said to do! It was never good enough. I was running on nothing in my stomach except two bananas, I was hungry and clearly dehydrated.

Tori came out from the shade wearing nothing but her underwear and bra, I gave her a weird look, but continued on with my work. "Don't give me that look, they're my brothers there's nothing weird with wearing this! Plus, it covers more than my bathing suit does." I watched as Tori slowly looked me up and down and an eerie smile spread across her face. "But with you… if you were naked the guys wouldn't know the difference! You'd look like a twelve-year-old boy! " She laughed and walked down the ocean, I tried to hide my embarrassment by moving some sand off my sneakers.

I knew Derek heard her he was less than two feet away, and creepily enough, he heard about everything. I watched Derek walk up the small rock covered hill —which I would have to climb to get up— and overlook the sign. He observed it and then looked out to the ocean, a part of me hoped that there was a boat on its way to get us. I wouldn't have to deal with any more of Tori's humiliating jibes or this unforgiving heat.

"I heard what Tori said," Simon said as he came up beside me, I sighed and tried to put on a friendly face, but I was failing miserably. "She's like that to anyone she thinks a threat—not that Derek and I think that!" He put up his hands in defense and smiled. "She was like that to a lot of people that latter on became close friends, I guess it's her defense mechanism."

"I thought I got rid of all of that when I graduated high school," I said and turned to fully face him.

"That's just Tori." He looked at her and watched as she kicked something into the ocean. "Do you want to go to the river?" Simon's brown eyes seemed to beg me to say yes and I wanted to get far away from Tori, but at the same ti, e I didn't want piss off Derek. He seemed like the kind of person to not piss off. I looked back up at the hill, Derek was long gone.

"Sure."

"Cool, cool! There's this cool rock I saw —when Tori and I were looking for food— and it overlooks the waterfall." He grabbed my arm and quickly whisked us into the forest, probably getting us away before Tori noticed we were gone. I can't even begin to comprehend on how life was growing up with her, she was a diva now then she must have been a major bitch back then.

"Oh, I forgot about your knee! Are you going to be okay?" He asked stopping short. I looked down at my tattered knee and shrugged, I mean there was already buckets of sand in the cut, walking a little farther wasn't going to kill me.

"I'll be fine. I can wash it up at the river anyway." We continued on up the hill and made in record time, Simon said that it took him and Tori twenty minutes to just make it halfway up to the river. He miraculously didn't mention his alleged emotional breakdown that Tori had to help him through, and I wasn't going to be the one to ask him.

When we reached the top Simon pointed out the high rock in the middle of the river, it was perfect for deep thinking—his words not mine. I followed him along a thin trail of smaller rocks that lead to the bigger one.

At the top was the most breathtaking view I have ever seen—and I lived in the city— I could see the edge of the lake that the waterfall fell into. The trees were so bright and green, and the animals were loud and awake. How come I never noticed this yesterday? Probably because I was too busy on trying to survive and not fall behind the group.

"What was life like back in New York?" Simon asked breaking the silence.

"How do you know I'm from New York?"

"For starters, the slight accent and the way you were dressed at the airport. You were on a flight going to San Juan, but you were still dressed up as if you were headed to Antartica. All circumstantial, but together it spells New Yorker.

"Well, I lived there all my life so it makes sense. Life was okay, I guess."

"What do you mean by I guess?"

"It was just me, my dad and my aunt for the past seventeen years, but I took a break from family the past two years. I just needed time to do things on my own." I shrugged and picked up a smooth rock.

"Why's that?"

"I was diagnosed with cancer when I was fifteen and I depended on them for everything. So when I was medically cleared I move to the city to get on my own feet, and I started school."

"Damn, what kind of cancer?"

"Stage 1 uterine cancer, I'm fine now—for the most part." He nodded and threw a rock into the river, we both watched it sink to the bottom before he moved on to his next question.

"What school do you go to?"

"Columbia University—for film art, my dream is to become a director and screenwriter." If I ever get off this island.

"No way! I graduated last semester for graphic design! I work at some lame newspaper in the comic department, but my dream was to make comic books! Maybe one day I'll draw about this experience and make millions off our adventures!"

"That'd be cool!" I laughed and leaned back onto my elbows, it was nice to just relax even if it was for a brief moment.

"So what's your favorite genre?"

"Horror, but it has to be the good kind of horror, not the cheesy kind."

"There's a cheesy kind of horror?"

"Yeah, a good movie depends on the writing, music. lighting and obviously the acting, but if one of those things are off then it's automatically a bad movie!"

"Makes sense. What got you into movies?"

"My mom. She had this huge collection of movies and after she died… I would just watch them over and over, just to get a tiny grasp of what she was like. Then I fell in love with what happens behind the screen, who thinks of these things? How did they get the special effect? If you mute the movie then it wouldn't be half as scary, the music wouldn't amp you up. There are a bunch of tricks to keep the audience on their toes!" When I turned to Simon he was smiling and looking out onto the river, with his head resting on his knees.

"I can see you're very good at it, do you have any movie scripts written out?"

"I had some ideas, but they were all on my notebook… in the middle of the ocean now." I sighed and ran a hand through my sandy hair.

"Ugh, I didn't even think of that! All my comics and my sketches… they're all gone!" Simon let out a shaky breath and threw another rock. I didn't know what to say, I wasn't very good at comforting people in general. We sat there on the rock for awhile, no longer talking or even trying to hold a conversation. I think it finally hit him that Liz was gone and he would never see her again, and maybe he needed time to cope with that realization.

* * *

The rest of the day seemed to fly by, I was alone by the river —cleaning my cut for the third time that day— when the sun started to set. I didn't want to be caught in the dark alone, so I quickly wrapped the blood-stained sleeve back around the cut and hobbled down the hill. Everyone else was sitting by the fire when I reached them, eating dinner. Which happened to be the same thing we ate for breakfast and lunch, bananas and coconuts.

I couldn't complain, this situation could have been a lot worse. We could still be drifting around in the ocean stuck on the raft, nothing to eat or get away from the sun. I scarfed down three bananas and some coconut—even though I was not a fan of either— I had to give my body some nutrients before going to bed, or I'd be up all night because of my grumbling stomach.

"Do we all have to sleep in that tiny fort again?" Tori whined.

"How is it tiny? I can lay across it and not touch either side!" Simon said as he scooped out another chunk of coconut.

"Congrats, but it's too tiny for me, I need more room to stretch out and Derek clearly does too!" Tori yelled before crossing her arms, she was like a two-year-old in a twenty-three-year-olds body.

"If we are here for more than a month then we can make another one for the girls, but for now we all have to stay in one fort." Derek declared. I didn't say anything because for starters, I wasn't comfortable rooming with Tori and I didn't want to start any more drama. Secondly, a big part of me hoped we wouldn't be here for that long.

* * *

 **AN: Alright, I listened to your reviews and made the chapter longer (8 pages) it's the longest one so far. I didn't want to have a run on chapter, where it's just filled with useless stuff so I ended it there!**

 **Let me know what you think!**

 **Side note: My bf left today, which sucks because it just happens to be the day before my birthday… But that's the Army, they know when to but in at the perfect times! And I moving across town so I literally have no wifi anymore hopefully I get it before next Wednesday.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

 **Discretion: I do not own DP**

 **AN: It's been a sluggish week so I'm sorry if the writing isn't been that great.**

 **It didn't really hit me that I'm not going to be able to see my bf for 9+ months… until I was driving away from dropping him off. (lol, I cried like a baby)**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter! (it's longer than the last)**

* * *

 _Previously_

 _"Congrats, but it's too tiny for me, I need more room to stretch out and Derek clearly does too!" Tori yelled before crossing her arms, she was like a two-year-old in a twenty-three-year-olds body._

 _"If we are here for more than a month then we can make another one for the girls, but for now we all have to stay in one fort." Derek declared. I didn't say anything because for starters, I wasn't comfortable rooming with Tori and I didn't want to start any more drama. Secondly, a part of me hoped we wouldn't be here for that long._

* * *

 **Week Three**

I walked along the shoreline after sneaking away from everyone else, I just wanted some alone time after sending nearly 24/7 with the group. As I turned the corner I found an odd pair of tracks in the sand, it looked like an ATV came through here, but someone dragged their feet. I frowned and followed it up until it stopped, at the end was a small dirt hill that had tracks all around it.

I carefully pulled some of the sand away and smiled at what I saw. Another batch of turtle eggs was sitting cozily under all that sand, I didn't want to leave them unprotected, so I covered them back up. I planted a stick right behind them so I could come back and check on them whenever it's not like I had anything better to do.

"Chloe!" A deep voice yelled out from around the corner—I guess that's my cue to head back. I looked back at the nest as I turned the corner and ran into a wall of flesh.

"Ow," I grumbled as I rubbed my forehead, I looked up at Derek who was glaring down at me.

"Watch where you're going." He said as I glared back at him and stepped back.

"What do you want?"

"It's time for breakfast unless you want to starve until lunch," he stepped aside and made me walk in front of him, it was one of the rules now. I was not allowed to be left alone for a long period of time or I could get hurt and die, I don't know why they would care about that. It'd be one less mouth to feed and worry about.

I walked quicker as the campsite came into view, Simon was sitting on one of the logs and Tori was distributing the breakfast berries. We now have some sort of a schedule, mornings we eat kiwis, berries and sometimes bananas, at lunch, we eat coconuts and kale—gross. Sometimes Derek catches a squirrel or finds food that won't kill us, but it's usually just fruit and gross veggies.

"Where were you?" Simon asked as he scooted over to make room for me.

"I was by the beach, I found another turtle nest, it's new so the babies should hatch in two months!" I smiled and grabbed the coconut bowl with my initials carved into it, it was Simons idea after he made a bunch and Tori kept losing hers. If she let hers again then she had to make her own—same with Derek and me.

"That'd be cool to see! I heard they mostly come out at night and follow the light to the ocean, so maybe if we are still here we can watch them crawl to the water?"

"I'd like that." Simon smile was short lived when Tori cleared her throat and fixed us both with a death glare. Getting close with her brother—even as a friend— was clearly not an option. I sighed and sat there eating my berries, it was peaceful which is what ticked me off that something was wrong. Tori was too quiet.

When it became difficult to breathe I put down my bowl and put my head in between my knees. I'm not sure what happened, but I was no longer facing the ground but instead Derek's face was inches from mine. His fingers were in my mouth and before I could do anything about it I was puking all over the both of us.

"How did you not know that those were poisonous?" Derek growled. Clearly nearly dying didn't waver his nasty attitude.

"Sorry I must have missed that lesson in Girl Scouts!" I quipped. Derek rolled his eyes as he searched through my bowl of berries. They were a mixture of white, yellow and red ones—all poisonous. I wiped my mouth and looked over at Simon who was staring at Tori, an evil smile spread across her smug face. That evil bitch.

"Tori?" Simon asked, his voice soft.

"What?"

"You were the one to pick the berries… did you know you gave Chloe poisonous ones?" He asked slowly. I stood there dumbfounded. How could they not pinpoint her? This was not the first occurrence where she's tried to kill me!

The first incident happened when I was swimming in the river to cool off one morning. I knew the boys wouldn't come up because they were too busy playing soccer with a coconut—weird, I know. I was overlooking the waterfall when I felt someone behind me, I tried to turn, but they were quicker than I. Before I knew it I was falling off the fucking cliff! When I landed and the shock of actually surviving wore off, I looked up and saw Tori smiling down at me. That's when I knew that that bitch was crazy. I tried to stay as far away from her as I could, but the island isn't that big and I couldn't tell Derek or Simon what had happened. Who were they going to believe? Their sister they've known since birth or me, the stranger who 'killed' their friend.

The second incident happened about a week later when I was looking for Simon, he had said to meet near the lake to go exploring, but he wasn't there. Tori came and said that he was waiting on the other side of the water, behind the rocks. Now, I was hesitant because one, it was Tori and two, why would he be behind the rocks? I slowly walked around the lake and when I looked back, Tori was gone. Thinking nothing of it, when I looked behind the rocks there was a pile of snakes. I froze in fear for many reasons, one being that they were snakes and they're all creepy and two, I had no idea if any of them were venomous. I felt a hand cover my mouth and my body being dragged away, I didn't fight or anything, but the person kept telling me to shut up. That's when I realized that I had been screaming. Once we were a safe distance away the person spun me around and that's when I wished the snakes just ate me whole. My knight and shining armor was none other than, Derek. We have been butting heads the whole three weeks of being on the island, but that's a whole other story. He chewed me out for being stupid and just standing in a pile of snakes. We'd argue perusal and then ignore each other for a day—it's become somewhat of a routine.

"S-she's t-t-trying to kill me!" I said in between clenched teeth. tori just smiled and let out a chilling laugh.

"Why would I waste my energy on a child?" She looked over at Simon and sighed. "Si, you have to stop hanging out with her! Liz hasn't even been dead for a month and yet, you're already moving on!"

"Is that what you think? Tori! I'm not moving on from anyone!"

"It's so obvious, you're around Chloe all the time and you barely hang out with me anymore!" Tori whaled and fell to the ground crying, Simon quickly walked over and put his arm around her. Slowly rocking her back and forth, I couldn't help but watch in horror. How could they brush off the fact that she literally tried to kill me not just once, but three times? I could barely breathe from choking to death and they were over there trying to fucking calm down the psycho? What kind of fucked up family was this?

Maybe they were in on the plot to kill me? I was the outsider so why would they risk making their sister the bad person when she was clearly unstable? She could kill us all one night… so the best thing to do was get rid of the threat—which was me.

I slowly backed away from the group making sure their back was to me as they all feverishly argued —who knows what— only when I was deep in the forest was when I turned my back to them. I didn't want them to notice I was gone and be able to catch up to me. Derek was tall, he could do two leaps and be right beside me in less than a second. That's how he saved me from those stupid snakes.

If he wanted me gone so badly then why would he risk his life to save me before the snakes did? It was probably just for show—keep Chloe on her toes until she gets tired and then BOOM— perfect time to kill little 'ol Chloe.

I ran until I was out of breath—which ended up not being very far, but far enough where they couldn't see me. I walked a couple more feet until I felt more poison berry come up probably from running—whatever it was it tasted horrible.

I inspected my vomit covered shirt and grimaced, I was stuck in this clothing until god knows when. I would either be reduced off this stupid island or get offed by the lunatic family—I preferred the first, but my options were looking scarce. I looked at my surroundings and figured out that I wasn't far from the river, I could easily clean my clothes up there without them finding me.

When I was about two feet away from the water I stripped out of everything. I didn't have soap or anything to actually wash the puke out so the lake water would have to do. I walked until the water came up to my belly button—quite refreshing after running for your life.

I scrubbed the vomit off with a rock and let it soak until some of the smell came out. Once I was satisfied with the cleanup job, I laid it out on the big rock to dry and moved on to the underwear. There were days where I wanted to just go commando, but I had nowhere to hide the undies without them being found.

I scrubbed it with the same rock just like my shirt and laid it beside my shirt. My jeans were a different matter, they had numerous hole from the knee down and they were not going to last for very long. I grabbed a bigger rock and placed a smaller one—about the size of my palm—onto my shirt.

My plan was to slam the larger rock onto the smaller one, but I failed miserably. The larger rock smashed my hand instead of the target. I let out the longest scream of my life as I stared at my swollen fingers. There is going to be no part left on me that hasn't been injured on this fucking island! "Mother of everything holy, that fucking hurt!" I hissed as I held my fingers to my chest.

After while I wiped the tears away and went back to my original task, but this time I actually hit the rock. Thankfully it did what I wanted, it made a sharp end on the tinier rock—a homemade knife or would you call it a shiv? That probably only counts when you're in jail.

I cut the bottom of my jeans and held them up for inspection, they happened to be uneven, but it'll have to do. I placed them beside my shirt and underwear and went to move on to my bra, but I couldn't find it. I looked at the other rocks make I accidentally dropped it on one of them. It wasn't there! What the hell! It was nothing fancy or anything, but it kept Tori's snide comments about my boob at bay. If she knew I wasn't wearing it… ha, that's the problem. She would never know.

Of course, I was self-conscious about my body before this, but that was when I was bald and bloated. I couldn't help how I looked, that was all from chemo, but this was new. I couldn't just stop taking medication to make my boobs grow or to be taller… I was stuck this way. I was never exposed to this sort of ridicule during school.

* * *

I must have been sitting in the small pond for awhile because when I came to I could feel the sun beating onto my back. I heard something moving in the trees. I stiffened and listened harder, probably just an animal. I shrugged it off and went back to inspect my dry clothes.

The light blue shirt had red stains on the front and still smelt of puke. I groaned and brought it to my washing rock and scrubbed until my fingers grew numb. I'm not sure it helped much, but it was better than nothing.

I got out of the water and stood on the bank when something pink caught my eye. I walked towards it and frowned, how the hell did that get there? I plucked my bra out of the tree branch and quickly fastened it back on. I know I didn't throw my bra into a tree! Someone was probably following me. I took a long look around but I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, I was starting to feel like Derek. I shook my head and grabbed my shorts if there really was someone out there then I'd want to at least have some clothes on.

I sat on the rock waiting for my shirt to completely dry when I head the same movement in the woods again. I sighed in defeat, I was probably going to die and there was nothing I could do—the rock! I completely forgot about my shiv, I quickly grabbed it and sat there waiting. For what? I have no idea, but I prayed it wasn't Derek because I would not be able to take him down.

It was like the universe had a grudge against me, because low and behold Derek walked out of the forest line and stopped at the edge of the embankment. I noticed how he was shirtless and his chest… he was defiantly jacked. I couldn't do anything except shake in my boots—actually sneakers— and wait for what he was going to do.

"What are you doing?" His voice boomed over the river.

"Go away!"

"Why?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you all are fucking crazy!" I screamed. He took a step towards me and I took two back, but soon enough I was trapped. I couldn't go anywhere unless I wanted to fall off the waterfall again, and just because I survived the first time didn't mean I could the second.

"You're the one holding a sharpened rock."

"That's because I have no other defense! You're too strong and you all are too stupid to see that Tori is fucked up in the head!"

"Just come back, Simon is worried about you." He looked over my shoulder and sighed.

"I don't want to be near Tori."

"Well, you have to come back whether you like it or not!" He argued.

"No, I don't. You're not in charge of me. I am twenty-three-years-old I can take care of myself!"

"I thought you were twenty-two!"

"My birthday was sometime last week, I don't know what exact day!" I mumbled. The only reason we knew how long we have been on this stupid island was that of Derek's watch. Every day at ten Derek would mark a little tally to keep track for how long we have been here. The night of the crash was exactly two weeks until my birthday and we've been on the island for Twenty-one tally marks, so three weeks. It had to be April already, damn.

"Don't change the subject, you're coming back with me, now!" Derek growled and stepped forward again, I feinted to the right and ran past him back onto the grass. But like I said before, he was crazy tall so it didn't take long until he was caught up with me. "Fine, you can stay here all you want. I don't care!" Derek walked past me and started down the trail back to the campsite. "Just don't expect your turtle eggs to be there when you come back, Tori and I were thinking about cooking them."

I glared daggers at his back, he wouldn't do anything like that, but Tori was a whole different story. She tried to kill me, so what was stopping her from killing innocent turtles? "That's fucked up! There are tons of ugly ass birds on the island that you can eat, why the hell would you eat the turtles?"

"Simple. Birds are gross."

"Turtles are endangered!"

"Who's going to stop me?" He spread out his arms and a small half grin formed at the corner of his mouth. I ran over to him and pushed with all my might, and surprisingly he moved—not far, but he still moved. Probably because he hasn't eaten anything except fruit for the past three weeks. He grabbed ahold of my waste and started dragging me down the trail, I screamed and tried to get away. His filthy hand covered my mouth to duffel my screaming, I took the opportunity to bit as hard as I could and he let go of me. I dropped to my knees and took off down the hill, I ran past the campsite and didn't stop until I was around the corner.

I don't know why Derek was so set on getting me back to the campsite and I didn't have any desire to find out. They probably had some messed up the idea to kill me and then cook me, and when he couldn't get me down here on my own he wanted to kill me himself. I shook my head, I watch too many movies and they were not helping in this situation. I sat down and laid out across the sand and only then did I realize I left my shirt up by the river.

Well, I couldn't go back without being seen and I don't want any of them to be able to drag me back to the campsite. So my options were to wait until they were sleeping and go back to the river to get my shirt or just sit half naked until I get rescued. Derek probably already brought it back to the tent for me to get or as leverage to get me back. I wasn't going back there, I can live on my own.

* * *

I looked up from my mini sand castle when I heard labored breathing, I had tightly onto my shiv and waited for whoever it was to turn the corner. When Simon rounded the corner he had my bowl in his hand and a bright smile on his face. I almost felt guilty for suspecting him of trying to kill me—almost.

"Derek said you wouldn't come back, so I got some food to you," he handed me my bowl full of kale and berries—the non-poisonous kind— and sat down beside me. He kept his distance and clearly made to sure to not look at my chest, not like I cared, I was probably the same size as his pecks. "Are you planning on staying here all night?"

"I'm not going back, I don't want to see Derek or Tori."

"You did a number on his hand, you broke the skin," a slight smile played at his lips as he watched me eat my food.

"Then maybe he shouldn't put his hands on me," I shrugged and pushed my now empty bowl away.

"Why don't you want to come back? You can't stay out here all night, there are animals and what if the tide comes in?"

"I'll be fine, Simon," I said sternly and watched the sun begin to set, I didn't want Derek or Tori coming her looking for Simon. "They're probably looking for you, you should go," I said. He looked hurt but didn't say anything he just nodded and stood to leave.

"You could be the bigger person and go back—"

"I am being the bigger person for getting out of there before you guys kill me. Just go run back to your psychotic siblings." I snapped and walked away in the other direction, I don't know why I was so rude to him. He was just trying to help and all I did was spit in his face.

* * *

When I awoke the next morning I was wrapped in a blanket that was used for the tent floor. I sat up fast and looked around, I was in the same place I fell asleep in, but how did I get the blanket? My coconut bowl wasn't where I left it, it was to the left of me full of berries. There were footprints leading from my sleeping position to the water, and they were too big to be Tori. I guess Simon wasn't mad at me like I had thought, he must have brought me my for and blanket. Man, now I felt foolish for accusing him of trying to kill me.

I still staid near the eggs just in case a raccoon, ghost crab or Derek decided they were a good midmorning snack. I stood up and stretched, I looked down at my appearance and let out a deep sigh. There was sand in places that I would rather not speak of, I was in a dire need of a shower. I looked at the ocean and shrugged, it would have to do.

I stripped out of my jeans and shook the excess sand out as best as I could, I decided that it would be best to keep my underwear and bra on. Just in case someone decided to come by, I didn't want them to see more than they already have.

The water was cold and refreshing as I walked in up to my chest, soon enough my feet could barely touch the bottom. I ducked under and paddled as far as I could, the water was so clear that when I opened my eyes underwater it was as if I was wearing goggles. I watched the colorful fish swim by doing their own thing, a bright blue one kept hiding in a tiny rock cave like it was playing peek-a-boo.

I swam out as far as I dared, I didn't want the waves to push me out farther than I could swim. I still wasn't the best swimmer, but if I did a little every day I could improve. I looked just as a huge leatherback turtle swam out from under me, I watched in awe and shock. I have never actually seen a grown sea turtle that wasn't in an aquarium. He gently glided under me and soon was out of sight.

I headed back to the shore once my arms started to grow heavy, I didn't want to be caught out there with no more energy. When I got to my little campsite I laid out the blanket and spread out on it and let the sun dry my body. One good thing that comes out of this annoying adventure would be the tan. Girls in New York paid hundreds of dollars to receive this kind of tan.

Another good thing would be all the stories I could write… maybe Simon had the right idea. Take anything that happened on this island—good or bad— and write a story about it. I would defiantly make Tori the evil bitch of the story and Derek the clueless one—even though he saved us all, I still didn't like him. Maybe he'd get killed off first? Or maybe Tori, and then Derek… If only I had a notebook.

* * *

When the sun started to set I put on my shorts and headed towards the shoreline. I was getting bored being here all alone, but I didn't want to deal with Tori's complaints. I picked up a blue-tinted shell and smiled, mom had a small collection of shells when I was younger. She lined them up along the bathroom shelves giving it a beach feel, she loved the beach. She always said it was her home away from home. I picked up some more shells and carried them to my deflating sand castle, I guess it's time to make a new one. It proved to be a good way to keep my mind preoccupied. I built a taller and a wider castle with a small moat, I placed the shells on the side like little windows.

I stopped once the sun was gone and my eyes grew too heavy to keep open for more than three seconds. I crawled over to the blanket and wrapped myself up like a burrito and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

I woke to the feeling of being gently rocked when I opened my eyes I was facing the night sky with the bright stars shining back at me. My head was against something soft but hard at the same time and I was no longer on the ground. I squinted and tried to see who was carrying me and why they were carrying me. The person looked down at me and quietly shushed me, I wasn't making any noise, why was he shushing me? My brain was too tired to figure out what was going on so it did what it did best and put me back to sleep.

I don't know which one woke me up first, the unbearable heat or the annoying high pitched whines that came from outside the tent. Tent? I shot up and quickly looked around, how the hell did I get here? I know for a fact that I fell asleep on the sand near the turtles …. oh no! I quickly got up and walked out of the tent, Simon and Tori were sitting by the fire bickering as usual. Derek was nowhere to be seen.

"Good morning!" Simon smiled and looked away from Tori -which seemed to anger her more.

"How'd I get here?"

"The temperatures dropped last night so Derek carried you here, it was warm by the fire and the tent. You were shivering pretty hard." Derek was carrying me... I thought that had been a dream. I sat down on the other log and put my hand over my face, I was still exhausted for some reason.

"He should be back soon, he went to get more berries," Simon said as he pushed around the logs in the fire. Why would Derek carry me back here? Did Simon make him? I don't recall seeing Simon while being carried, but I didn't even know that it was Derek carrying me in the first place! He wouldn't do it on his own free will, I mean we both had a mutual hate for each other! Just then Derek came out of the forest carrying four bowls and something that looked like a cloth. He handed out the bowls and when he came to me he dropped the fabric on my lap along with my bowl— clearly, he still hated me.

I had completely forgotten that I was only in my bra and shorts, and surprisingly Tori hasn't commented on it at all. I quickly pulled the shirt back on and ate my berries in silence. Where the hell was our rescue search and why were they taking so long to find us? I don't think I could survive on this island for one more day!

 **AN: Hope you enjoyed!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

 **Discretion: I do not own DP**

 **AN: This was my favorite chapter to write so far! I had this all planned out in my phone after I wrote the first chapter! I tried to keep them all in character, sometimes I feel like Derek in this story isn't as harsh as he is in the books, but I'd like to think that aging has made him more mature… but still blunt.**

 **Anyway, Enjoy!**

* * *

 _Previously…_

 _He handed out the bowls and when he came to me he dropped the fabric on my lap along with my bowl— clearly, he still hated me._

 _I had completely forgotten that I was only in my bra and shorts, and surprisingly Tori hasn't commented on it at all. I quickly pulled the shirt back on and ate my berries in silence. When the hell would our rescue party come? Because I needed off this island, now!_

* * *

 **Week Six**

I carved another tally mark into the tree and grumbled, we have been here for six whole weeks and not one sign of anyone looking for us! When the fourth week came the tension grew and we were all at each other's throats, even Simon and I were bickering. The longer we were out here the more likely the search party has given up, which meant we were stuck on this island. I tried to stay positive but the negative thoughts were starting to cloud my mind, what was dad doing? Aunt Lauren had to be in hysterics! Six weeks without knowing what happened to her niece, I mean… she wouldn't just give up.

Derek said that if we were here longer than a month then we would start building the other tent, but we still haven't even started on it. In a way, I think we have been putting it off because we all don't want to face the fact that we might never be found. Tori has been nice lately and it's been putting me on edge when Derek would yell at me for doing something stupid she would stand up for me. She has been like this since I came back from the turtle egg nest and I still had no idea what her tactic was.

"Chloe," Simon waved his hand in front of my face pulling me out of my thoughts. "We have to go collect more yucca crap, time to start on your tent." He said as he made his way towards the woods. I looked back at Tori and Derek as they cleared a section of sand close to the other tent. I must have really been out of it. I quickly followed Simon and caught up to him surprisingly fast. He must be out of it too usually it takes me a good five minutes to catch up.

"So, we really are making another tent?" I asked.

"Yes, weren't you listening to Derek?"

"No, I spaced out…what'd he say?"

"That we have to face the facts that we are probably going to be stuck here for a while and it's time to stop pushing shit off. We have to start making long-term plans, we can't keep eating fruit and nuts for the rest of our lives." He let out a frustrated breath and knelt near the yucca plant. I pulled back on the leaves as he cut away at the root, making sure to leave enough space to allow it to grow. I carried half of the heavy leafs while Sion carried the other and we walked back in silence. None of us in the mood to say what's on our minds.

I crushed the yucca this time and handed the strands to Tori, Derek and Simon were collecting sticks and arranging them so it would be big enough for Tori and I. I didn't need much room, but Tori was almost a foot taller than I and she was going to make a fuss if she didn't get what she wanted. I wiped away the sweat that was dripping down my face, it had gotten a lot hotter over the past couple weeks, but at nighttime, it was freezing. Probably because we were near the ocean and in the middle of the Caribbean.

I was still uncomfortable with the idea of sleeping next to Tori, she was already unpredictable during the day, who knows what she'll try when we are alone. I also did;t want to admit it but being in the same tent as Derek —as annoying as he is— gave me some sort of comfort. Hopefully being less than two feet away from the boys would still help, but I had to stop relying on them to keep me safe.

"Are you done the rope?" Derek asked. I looked up and squinted against the blinding sun. Tori sighed and pushed another strand away from her and stood up stretching her legs.

"You could help, Derek! This is the most boring shit I have ever done and we have to do a bunch more!"

"We aren't in a rush for this to be done, if we don't finish tonight you guys can sleep in th—"

"I don't want to sleep near you guys anymore! I'm tired of the snoring and Simon talking in his sleep! I'm pretty sure Chloe is tired of that shit too!" Tori pointed over at me and Derek turned to look down at me, I shrugged and kept twisting the strands together. I didn't feel like getting in between their fight, they were grown up they should deal with it on their own.

"Look, I get that we are trapped her for who knows how long and as much as I hate it, I have to learn to get along with each other! I'm trying to communicate with you, Derek, that I do not want to wait another day for my own tent!" I stared in shock at how calmly Tori explained everything, this is the fifth time she's done this and it still freaks me out! Was she playing us? And then one day when we think she has changed and finally relaxed, she would snap and kill us all. I shook my head, Tori may be crazy, but she wasn't a psychopath. Last week when Derek caught a squirrel for dinner Tori cried for a half hour saying he was an evil human being. I mean we all had to eat something other than berries.

"Fine. I'll help once I am done with the sticks," Derek turned and headed back to Simon. I turned back to the yucca plant and crushed more strands, it proved to be a good way to take out your frustrations.

"I miss my boyfriend," I looked up in surprise as Tori looked longingly towards the water. "He was supposed to come to the wedding, but at the last minute, a client just happened to call… I'm pretty sure he was cheating." She looked back at me and gave me a sad smile. "Simon is the only one who had the perfect girlfriend, who was my best friend. I mean C'mon, there are a million other people on earth and my best friend happens to be his soul mate?" She rolled her eyes as she finished another rope. I wasn't sure on what to say, I'm not used to talking to her unless you included bitching at each other.

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?"

"Uhh no," I uncomfortably crushed another strand and looked anywhere except in Tori's direction.

"Why?"

"I—I just don't." I wanted to yell at her, she spent weeks bickering at me about how boyish my body looked, but now she was surprised that I never had a boyfriend?

"I'm sorry about what I said about your body, Simon yelled at me a lot. I've just never seen such a …. childish body." I sighed and pushed away from the plants and stood up, Tori gave me a shocked look. "Where are you going?"

"Look, I can't help how my body looks or the fact that I was too sick for guys to take priority in my life!" I argued and stormed into the woods, I knew she hasn't changed she was just putting on a front! I walked blindly in the woods with no particular destination in mind, I just need to get away from her before I did something I would really regret. Instead of going left which would bring me to the river, I went right and walked to the other side of the hill. As the trees started to thin it was clear that this path was a dead end unless I wanted to jump fifty plus feet to my death. I doubt anyone has been up here yet so finding me would take some time.

I walked to the edge of the cliff and peeked over, the bottom consisted of dark green choppy waters that even the best swimmer couldn't conquer. But the rest of the view was astounding, I could see miles from where I was standing. This would be a good place to look for ships instead of the shoreline.

I sat down with my feet dangling over the edge, and took it all in. I missed the city so much, but this view could never be beaten not in a million years. I watched in the distance as a bird swooped down and plucked something out of the water, which made me think of Finding Nemo. His dad searches miles and miles for his son, and he was a goddamn fish! Where is my dad? He had tons of money to use for more than one rescue party, we should have been found by now!

I would say that he probably hasn't even noticed I'm missing, but I was supposed to meet him in San Juan! He would be beyond stupid to not notice by now, especially with Aunt Lauren going crazy! I sighed and slumped forward just a tiny bit I didn't want to accidentally fall off the cliff. I just wanted to be home.

"You planning on jumping?" A deep voice called out, I nearly jumped out of my skin which almost made me fall off the damn cliff! I quickly turned to face Derek and glared at him, he shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"You've been up here for hours and Simon insisted on having me tell you that the other shelter is done, and we are going swimming in the lake if you want to join." I frowned, I hadn't realized that I had been up here for that long.

"Why couldn't he tell me this?"

"Beats me." He grumbled and started walking away, even if I wanted to go swimming I had nothing to go in! Sure, I could go in my underwear, but, um, hello! Baby blue underwear is not a good substitute for a bikini bottom—everything can be seen once it's wet!

After sitting there for awhile I decided to follow, it didn't necessarily mean I had to go swimming I could just hang out with them. It beats being all alone. I could hear Tori's squeals before I even saw her, when I got to the clearing Tori was over Derek's shoulder begging to be put down. Derek let out a deep, rich chuckle that tugged at the sides of my mouth. I've been with them for almost two months and I have never heard him laugh, not even once! I watched as he flipped Tori over and sent her sailing into the water when she came up for air I expected more bitching, but instead, she was laughing.

I guess having siblings wasn't that bad, yeah they argue and push your buttons, but they can become one of your closest best friends. I sat on the rock beside the lake watching all three of them goof around, it was like seeing three totally different people.

Simon seemed to notice me and started swimming in my direction, once he reached the rock he climbed out and sat next to me. He was in just his boxers and I'm guessing that that was what Derek was wearing too.

"Why aren't you coming in?"

"I don't have anything to wear…"

"Well neither do we," he gestured to Derek and Tori who were wrestling to push each other underwater. Derek was clearly not using his full strength because Tori actually looked like she could win. "Come on! Relax and cool off, the water is warmer than the ocean." He nudged me and then jumped back in and quickly swam back to his siblings, I stopped paying attention as I started braiding three vines together, it could be a cute homemade flower crown. I'd have to add the flowers on later, I think pink and white would be-

Suddenly I was being thrown over someone's shoulder and carried into the water. I screamed and hit whoever's back it was, judging by how high up I was it must have been Derek. Before I could think of anything to do I was flying through the air and soon underwater. I was sinking too fast to swim back up and because I was screaming when I was flying, I had no chance to hold my breath. My lungs were burning and the surface seemed to be impossible to reach, I paddled my hardest and finally, I could see the light. As I broke to the surface I gasped for air and moved to the shallow area, my lungs burnt like crazy every time I took a breath. Once I had my breathing under control I glanced back at Simon and Derek, but they were no longer in the water. I couldn't find them anywhere. Tori sat on the rock I was earlier drying off, she too was only in her undergarments.

"Ready?" Simon shouted from behind me, I frowned and looked up to see the guys standing at the edge of the waterfall.

"Be careful!" Tori shouted and giggled as we watched both of them jump one at a time. I don't know how they could do that without dying, it was a fifteen-foot drop! Okay, maybe it was a death risk, but they could still get really hurt and then Tori and I would be stuck doing all the work around here! I shivered as a gust of wind blew through the trees, this is why I didn't want to go swimming, and the fact that I can't swim!

I started walking back to the campsite after sitting there for another five minutes shivering my ass off. At least I could go into the tent and block the wind, I didn't even get five feet before I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Where you headed?" Simon asked. I sighed and turned back to face the wind, my teeth just wouldn't stop chattering.

"I'm c-cold. I'm going b-back to the t-tent," I stuttered out and held onto my arms tighter. Derek and Tori walked up beside us both holding dry clothes to wear later. I wanted to scream and maybe cry, but instead, I walked back in silence. I would just have to endure the freezing night with wet clothes.

"Why are you so quiet, Chloe?" Simon asked once again on the short walk back to the campsite.

"I'm f-freezing! I didn't want to go swimming for a reason!" I hissed as another blast of cold air came from out back. Is it me or did it just now get cold when I have no way to get warm? I sat down on a log near the fire pit and huddled against my legs.

"Will you quit your belly-aching?" Derek grunted as he threw his shirt at me, I looked at the faded white shirt and rolled my eyes. I wasn't belly-aching, Simon asked me why I was quiet! I took the shirt and headed into the girl's tent, which was the same as the guys just not as tall. As I stripped off my shirt Tori walked in and stopped dead in her tracks.

"That is disgusting!" She shouted. Frowning, I covered my body with my wet shirt not sure what she was saying was gross. I mean, small boobs aren't gag-worthy…

"What?"

"That scar! I didn't see it before," she pointed to dark purple scar that started at my belly button and disappeared under my shorts.

"It's always been there, it's just dark because I am cold! Can you leave so I can get dressed?"

"Jeez, I was just getting my shirt! No need to be bitchy!" She grabbed her shirt and quickly left the tent, I could hear hushed voices outside—Tori was probably gossiping about my scar. Did they forget that the walls are literally leafs? I stripped out of everything else wet except my underwear and when I slipped the shirt on it nearly reached my knees. I could go without underwear, but I didn't want to risk anything especially with how windy it has been out.

I grabbed my wet clothes and walked out of the tent, it was just Derek and me left at the campsite. He was kneeling by the fire trying to get one started, I walked past him and hung my wet clothes up onto the lowest branch available. Which was far from low to me, I had to go up on my tippy toes to just be able to throw the clothes onto the branch. I looked at my bra and frowned, how would I know my clothes would be safe up there? What if Tori took them? I would be stuck in Derek's shirt and underwear… Stop being so paranoid, Chloe! I tossed up the bra and it landed perfectly beside my other clothes, now let's hope I can actually reach them later.

"Heigh-ho, heigh-ho it's home for work we go," Simon came out of the woods holding three rat looking creatures and singing incredibly off tune. "I got a bottle of rum and a need for fun!…uh something, something, heigh-ho!" Simon set down the creatures and took an exaggerated bow and looked back at us.

"The trap worked! We go the meats!" His voice deepened as he pointed to dead animals.

"Where's Tori?" Derek asked, inspecting the dead squirrels.

"Picking berries… She asked for your help, Chloe." I gave him a stern look and resisted to move, last time I fell for that I was almost eaten by a snake! "Unless you want to switch places and you can skin the squirrels?" Simon raised a brow and motioned for the woods, I wanted to resist, but then that would just cause more drama. Besides, I had no desire to skin any kind of animal.

I found Tori deep in the woods squatting in front of what must be a blueberry bush, three bowls were already full with kale and mixed berries. There was no reason for me to be here, I'm sure she can handle this on her own.

"You rang?" I said. I watched in delight as Tori fell over in shock, she looked over at me and glared.

"Don't sneak up on people like that!" She brushed off her legs and handed me the empty bowl. "I wanted to talk to you, away from the boys," she said, too busy picking berries to look in my direction.

"About what?"

"Your scar," she looked up at me and scoffed as if I was already supposed to know that information. "How'd did you get it?"

"Surgery…" I paused and really looked at her, why did she care about what's on my body?

"Did you have a baby?" I burst out laughing, how could I not? Tori thought I had a kid? Just a couple weeks ago she thought I was twelve! Imagine, me, having a kid? That'd be the day. Tori gave me a look that took all the humor out of the moment, I cleared my throat and wiped away the tears.

"No, it was from removing a tumor," I said as I started picking my share of the berries and hopefully if we finished this quickly I could leave and not have to deal with this conversation.

"Can you have kids?" she finished with her last bowl and scooted closer to me to help with mine, I was still mystified on why she was being nice.

"No, the chemo and radiation messed up my reproductive organs, and the surgery sure didn't help at all."

"Good!" She turned towards me and gave me a toothy grin and then turned right back to picking the berries.

"Why is that good?"

"Umm, well, duh! Derek doesn't want kids so you guys would be perfect for each other!" She giggled.

"D-Derek? What? Ew, no! He's engaged and I'm not—" I stood up and glared at her, what was she trying to do. She looked genuinely shocked as I started to walk away.

"Well, you can't have Simon! He's taken, so the only other person on this Island is Derek!" I stopped in my tracks and turned back to her.

"Derek is taken too!" I said, which must have been hilarious to Tori because she started giggling unit tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"Silly, Chloe." She stood up and tilted her head to the right, her long black hair falling into her face. I started backing up faster, what the hell was wrong with this bitch? She stood up straight and shook her head and looked back at me, she frowned, bent down to grab the bowls and walked towards me. She handed me two of the bowls and headed towards the campsite. What was that all about?

"Why are you staring at me?" She snapped.

"You were saying weird things… about Derek and me—"

A harsh laugh, "Derek would never settle for someone like you, even if you two were the last people on this island!" I stopped in my tracks and just stared after her, did I image everything that just happened? Her harsh laughs were audible from all the way back here, I looked down at the bowls in my hands, D and C—how ironic.

* * *

I didn't eat much of my dinner, considering how nervous I was about sleeping next to Tori earlier, I was terrified of it now! She went full crazy and two seconds later couldn't remember anything! I watched her now as she remorselessly ate her part of the squirrel and laughed along to Simons jokes. Maybe I was wrong earlier, maybe she was so crazy that she had us all fooled into thinking she was sane…

"Why aren't you eating?" Simon whispered. I shrugged and forced more meat into my mouth, it tasted like undercooked chicken, but we didn't really have anymore cooking options other than a stick and a fire. Yeah, we had to cook squirrels as if we were doing s'mores. Simon seemed satisfied with my answer because he turned back to his bowl continued eating. I ate a couple more bites, but once my stomach threatened to bring up what I just forced down, I knew it was time to stop eating. It seemed to be that I was the only one who couldn't stomach their dinner as everyone else piled their empty bowls but the log.

"You know what is good after a satisfactory squirrel s'mores? Ghosts stories!" Simon said rubbing his hands together mischievously. I rolled my eyes and placed my bowl next to the others, I did not need any more scary shit tonight or my nerves would fry.

"I'm good," I said as I sat back down on my log, I rubbed my arms together to try and keep some heat on me. The sun had set a while ago and the only heat source was the fire, I have no idea how Derek was staying warm with only being in shorts.

"Well too bad, we are! You can't just joke about ghost stories and not tell them! It's one of the worst crimes out there!" Tori commented. I was never going to win here so I just gave in, they'd probably be lame stories anyway. "Simon, you go first since you brought the topic up!"

"Gladly," Simon cleared his throat and stood up straighter. "March 24, 1978, on route from Bermuda to Portsmouth a naval ship called HSM Eurydice was caught in one of the most unbelievable snow storms known to man. The ship capsized and quickly sank, killing all but four out of the three-hundred-and-nineteen remembered crew. There have been numerous reports made about seeing the ship afloat just where it supposedly sunk… but what about those four survivors? What happened to them? Where did they go? Well, the story has it that a women swam up to them when they were trapped under the frozen water, desperate for air they agreed to do anything for the lady. Once the women brought them to land they took note on how odd she looked, her nose was snubbed and her fingers were webbed, and her feet! Well, she didn't have any, in their place was a long, beautiful green tail—almost like whales. But once the women were dry her tail turned into feet!"

"She taught the men how to cook, hunt and build a shelter and in return, all the men had to do was be loyal to the women and she would keep them safe and alive. It seemed easy enough, that is until another mysterious creature washed ashore begging for help, the men being dazed by how prettier this one compared to the other did as they were told. Three of the four men fell for the other women charm, they couldn't help it, she was so beautiful and lustful… well, word got back to the ugly mermaid and boy was she pissed! She stormed onto shore and slaughter everyone who was unfaithful.—including the prettier mermaid! Only one served the brutal massacre and he was left to stay on the island until he proved that he was loyal to the mermaid! No one knows where the exact island is, but some have heard the screams of the men being slaughtered and the evil laughter of the women." Simon wigged his eyebrows and smiled, I couldn't help but rub my hands down my arms once again—not because I was scared, I'm cold! Jeez, mermaids aren't even real!

"Okay, that was über lame, I have a better one!" Tori exclaimed and scooted to the edge of her log. I peeked a quick look at Derek who had his arms crossed and was intently looking into the fire—he looked as bored as I felt. "Okay, this takes place like thirty years ago, so not as old but still old. So, a guy drove his date to a dark and deserted lovers' lane for a make-out session,"

"Like that time dad caught you and Brady fucking in his car!" Simon interrupted while laughing his ass off. I couldn't imagine how embarrassing that must have been, not just for Tori or the guy, but for their dad! "I mean it would make sense to leave the driveway!"

"Says the Nineteen-year-old virgin!"

"Hey, I waited for Liz to be ready… at least I wasn't the last one in the family." Tori and Simon both looked at Derek who seemed to be…blushing? I couldn't blame him, I haven't even told Lauren that I was still a virgin… at Twenty-three. Damn.

"That's what you think, now get back to the stories!" Derek mumbled. Tori and Simon shared a look and did that weird twin mind thing, and then both nodded.

"Who was it?" Tori asked.

"None of your business." He grunted.

"Okay, how old were you?" Simon quizzed.

"Younger than you were and older than Tori, now can we move on?"

"So, between fifteen and eighteen… that doesn't help!"

"Too bad."

"Just finish the story, Tori," Simon said as he slumped back into the wood, his face sketched in confusion.

"Fine, so the boy went to lovers' lane and turned on the radio for mood music, he leaned over to whisper in the girl's ear and began kissing her. Minutes later, the mood was broken when the music suddenly stopped mid-song. After a moment of silence an announcer's voice came on, warning in an ominous tone that a convicted murderer had just escaped from the state insane asylum— which happened to be located within a half-mile of where they were parked—and urging that anyone who notices a man wearing a stainless steel hook in place f his missing right hand should immediately report his whereabouts to the police. The girl became frightened and asked to be taken him. The guy, feeling bold, locked all the doors instead and, assuring his date they would be safe, attempted to kiss her again. She became frantic and pushed him away, insisting that they leave. Relenting, the boy peevishly jerked the car into gear and spun its wheels as he pulled out of the parking space. When they arrived at the girl's house she got out of the car, and, reaching to close the door, began to scream uncontrollably. The boy ran to her side to see what was wrong and there, dangling from the door handle, was a bloody hook!"

"That was is so old and overused!" Simon complained and crossed his arms, I could have laughed at how young he looked doing that, but I was still feeling unsettled. "Derek, it's your turn!"

"I don't have any," he uncrossed his arms and shrugged.

"Bullshit, you always have a ton of stories to tell when we went camping with dad!" Tori exclaimed. Derek looked down at the fire and let out a deep sigh as if Tori was forcing him to tell a story.

"Fine, but I'm only telling one so don't beg when I am done." He gave Tori a stern look who nodded eagerly, she'd probably beg for more knowing her attitude. "Back in '75 a young couple, both eighteen, decided to get married right after high school. The father of the bride lived in Palm Beach in a mansion and was able to afford a big wedding. To make a long story short, they got married, and the wedding was beautiful, blah, blah, blah. After the wedding, they had a big reception in an old building, and everyone got pretty shit faced. When there were only twenty people left, the groom decided that they should play hide-and-seek. Everyone agreed, because who doesn't play hide-and-seek at a damn wedding," Derek rolled his eyes and shook his head, listening to him talk was kind of soothing, his New Yorker accent coming in here and there. It reminded me of home and I missed it dearly.

"Anyway, everyone agrees and the groom was 'it.' They all went and hid, and the game went on. After about twenty minutes everyone had been found except for the bride. Everyone looked everywhere and tore the whole place apart looking for her. After a few hours, the groom was furious, thinking the bride was playing some shitty trick. Eventually, everyone went home. A few weeks later the groom, having placed a missing person report, gave up looking for her. Heartbroken, he tried to go on with his life. Three years later a little old lady was clean the place up. She happened to be in the attic and saw an old trunk. She cleaned it off, and, out of curiosity, opened it. She screamed at the top of her lung sad ran out of the building calling the police. Apparently, the bride had decided to hide in the trunk of the game of hide-and-seek. When she sat down, the lid fell, knocking her unconscious and locking her inside. She suffocated after days or so. When the women found her, she was rotting, her mouth in the shape of a scream."

"Ha! Kinda like you with your wedding, except the groom is missing, and probably won't be found until we are dead! " Tori commented, pushing her hair out of her face. I swallowed and looked down at my dirty sneakers, I don't know why we never talked about the fact that we may not get rescued and we actually might fucking die here! What was the point? We have been here for almost two months and not even one sign of anyone else being here. We were as good as dead.

"Chloe—considering you're such a movie fanatic— do you have any scary stories to tell?" Simon asked. I could tell he was desperately trying to lift the mood, but I was already creeped out about the other stories and the fact that I might die here. And a virgin too! I must have messed up pretty bad in my past life for God to hate me this much!

"Yeah, but I'm tired. I'm going to go for a bathroom break.." I stood up and held down the oversized shirt—just in case the wind decides it was a perfect time to blow it up— as I walked into the woods. I wonder what life would be like right now if I never got on that plane, would I have connected with my dad a different way? Would I still be working at the same dinner? Would I have a boyfriend yet? I wonder what he would look like, blonde, blue eyes? Too bland for me.

After I finished my business and headed back to the campsite I heard a weird noise. I've been in these woods alone and in the dark plenty of times for over the past couple weeks, but I've never heard that before! It sounded like an animal crying for help, I paused and even held my breath to try and hear it better. When it happened again blood ran cold throughout my body and I quickly turned back to the campsite. It sounded like a human being crying out for help! How? Everyone was back at the fire, I would have heard them walk past me!

I froze when I heard a chilling laugh coming from the right of me, I didn't know what to do. I felt that if I ran whoever was out there could easily find me, but if I stood her then they'd be able to find me too! I panicked and did the only thing I could think of—walk slowly and try not to make any sound. As I came around the corner I could see the beach just a couple hundred more feet and I'd be safe, but relief seemed to fuel my fear. It made me want to run and never look back, but I knew better.

I looked behind me real quick to make sure no one was there, but all I heard was more cackling and some more crying. When I turned around I saw a dark figure standing in the middle of the path, I screamed bloody murder and if I hadn't already gone to the bathroom I would have pissed myself from fear. Instead of running away or fighting off this stranger like a normal person would do. I fell to my knees and started sobbing, the fear and the crying made breathing difficult.

I heard familiar laughing coming from in front of me, when I looked up I saw those stupid, bright green eyes. Derek was the person standing in the path, I would bet my trust fund that Simon and Tori were in on this too! I wiped away my tear and stood up, I was too pissed to say anything at all. I glared as I passed Derek and made my way back to the tents.

I went to my clothes and tried to grab them so I could take this stupid shirt off, but they were too high and still looked wet. I could just sleep in my underwear, but who the hell knows what kind of prank they would play on me! I gave up and stomped back to my tent.

"Where'd you go?" Simon asked and he came to a screeching halt when he saw my tear-stained face. I didn't say anything and just glared at him, he probably thought it was funny to mess around with people like that. Well, it wasn't.

"You should have seen your face, Chloe! It was pure fear, I almost pissed myself laughing!" Tori said as she came out of the forest line walking beside Derek. I felt my face flush and my breathing becoming shallow and faster. Was this how they go their kicks? Harass the outsider until she goes crazy?

"Fuck you." I hissed. And with that I went into my tent and forced myself to sleep.

* * *

"Oh my, don't you look magnificent!" Aunt Lauren exclaimed as she examined my long, lace, wedding dress. I looked in the mirror I was standing in front of and smiled, I looked just like my mom in her wedding pictures.

"I'm nervous!"

"Oh, don't be! Simon is a very nice fellow! I can't wait to see all the little kids you raise! By the way, what will your last name be?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, are you changing it? Or keeping it? And if you do change it what will it be?" Lauren asked as she handed me my bouquet. I frowned and thought back, Simon never did tell me his last name. How odd. I turned at the sound of a knock on the door, in walked Tori in a long blue dress, her dark hair pulled up into a bun.

"Look at my new sister-in-law!" She came in and hugged me quick and hard then turned to my aunt. "May I have a moment?"

"Of course! I'll see you at the ceremony!" Tori walked Lauren out with a big, fake smile on her face, and once the door was shut it was gone. "Listen here, bitch, you will not be marrying Simon! He is my brother, so I get to pick whom he dates and marries!" She pushed me off my little stool and punch me in the nose.

"What the hell?" I clutched my cheek and glared at her. It seemed like slow motion as I watched her hand come flying towards me, but instead of just her fist, there was a brick! Where the hell did she get that?

"Nighty, night, bitch!" She yelled and then everything was black.

When I woke up everything was still dark, I could barely move my hands an inch without them coming in contact with something. Where was I?

"Hello?" I screamed and it bounced right back. I was in something small, my legs were scrunched together and my neck was ore from bending it at an annoying angle. I felt my body jolt and my stomach go into my throat as if I were on a rollercoaster. What was going on? The air wasn't coming fast enough for me to properly breath and I couldn't move an inch without my whole body complaining. I heard a click and footsteps coming towards me and some voices, but they were too low for me to recognize.

"Where's Chloe?" A guy asked.

"I have no idea! She was here when I left, did you check all the bathrooms?" This time I recognized the voice—Tori. She was the one who hurt me! I screamed as loud as I could and banged my hands against the walls, why couldn't they hear me? The footstep retreated and I was left alone…or so I thought. There were another click and a couple of grunts, I was blinded by the light to see who had opened the door. The person blocked the light and I blinked a couple times to adjust my eyes. Dark hair and bright green eyes became visible and I almost wept with joy, I noticed how much older he looked. His hair was graying at the sides and he had laugh lines around his mouth.

"Chloe…" Derek whispered and shook his head. He pulled out a cell phone no longer looking at me. No matter how hard I tried I could not move it was as if my body froze in this position. "I found her and it looks like she's been dead the whole time," Derek grumbled into the phone, I couldn't understand what he was talking about. I wasn't dead!

—

I bolted up and screamed, I felt around my face and body making sure everything was alright. I grabbed my legs and frowned when I couldn't find my shorts, where were they? It was too dark to see anything in the tent, but I could hear Tori's light snores and a couple of grumbles.

I wiped my tear stain face and took a shaky breath, that dream was crazy and I blamed the obnoxious scary stories. If Derek hadn't told a story then maybe I'd be dead to the world right now, having dreams of being home. I laid back down and tried to calm myself and go back to sleep, but nothing was working. Every time I closed my eyes I pictured Tori hitting me in the face with a brick or being trapped in a trunk. Eventually, I just gave up, if I ever did fall asleep tonight it would be chalk full of nightmares of homicidal mermaids and creepy dead brides.

I walked down to the water and tried to clear my mind. The moon was shining so bright tonight that it felt so close, and maybe if I held out my hand I could touch it. I sat down and took a deep breath in, I missed everything from home. I missed the city sounds and the lights at night, I missed my dad and his awkward hugs. I missed Aunt Lauren even if she was a helicopter aunt, she was trying her best to take care of her sister's kid. I even missed my stuffed koala bear, even though he's been shoved into my closet since I was ten. I just wanted to be home already and away from this crap.

I wonder how terrified Lauren is, was he up all night hoping that she'd get a call saying they found me? Where was my dad? Was he still working or was he trying to find me? Would I ever see them again?

 **AN: Okay! That was 12 pages long, the longest chapter I have ever written! (So far)**

 **I hope you enjoyed!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 **Discretion: I do not own DP**

 **AN: Okay, I'm trying something different for this chapter, let me know if you like it or not.**

* * *

Previously….

 _I walked down to the water and tried to clear my mind. The moon was shining so bright tonight that it felt so close, and maybe if I held out my hand I could touch it. I sat down and took a deep breath in, I missed everything from home. I missed the city sounds and the lights at night, I missed my dad and his awkward hugs. I missed Aunt Lauren even if she was a helicopter aunt, she was trying her best to take care of her sister's kid. I even missed my stuffed koala bear, even though he's been shoved into my closet since I was ten. I just wanted to be home already and away from this crap._

 _I wonder how worried Lauren is, was he up all night hoping that she'd get a call saying they found me? Where was my dad? Was he still working or was he trying to find me? Would I ever see them again?_

* * *

 **Week Ten**

 **Lauren's POV**

Ten whole weeks without knowing where she was, or even if she was alive! The longer she was missing the more likely we'd just find her body. No one could locate the plane or track it's path before it's disappearance, it wasn't sitting right with me. How long does it take to figure this out? Ten people went missing, an $84.5 million plane went missing and they still couldn't get their shit together and find them?

It feels like yesterday I heard her voice over the phone, but it also feels like years have passed. Not sleeping does that to you, you lose track of the days and things start to collide. I remember the day we found out that she was missing when I closed my eyes it was like a movie replaying over and over again.

 ** _Ten weeks earlier_**

 _I hurried down the florescent lit hallway and into my office, my phone has been buzzing all morning and I know I broke the keep-your-phones-in-your-locker rule, but I wanted to speak with Chloe. When I saw the caller I.D I couldn't help but let out a groan, what the hell does he want? Maybe Chloe was calling from his phone?_

 _"Hello?"_

 _"Have you heard from Chloe?" Steve hollered into the phone, I pulled it away from my ear and frowned. Chloe probably told Steve to tell me to back off, I don't understand that girl, she should be grateful for everything I did when she was sick!_

 _"Well, hello to you too, and no I haven't spoken to her since yesterday, why?"_

 _"Her plane never landed and I have been calling her all day, she's not picking up!" I stopped short and paused, why wouldn't her plane be there?_

 _"Was there a delay? Maybe she was stuck at the airport all night and she didn't have a chance to charge her phone? I mean, she could be flying right now!"_

 _"Lauren you and I both know she would never wait this long to contact one of us to let us know she was going to be late! I talked to the airport here and they said that her flight took off!"_

 _"Then where is she?"_

 _"That is what I am trying to figure out!"_

 _"Okay, okay! I'll call JFK and see if they have any information…" I said as I grabbed my office phone and dialed her number, which I knew by heart. It rang five times before going to voicemail, either her phone is dead or she is ignoring us. I dialed the airport and was put on hold for over an hour, in the meantime I tried Chloe a couple more times._

 _I told myself to stay calm and she is probably flying right now, but something in the back of my mind was buzzing. Something wasn't right. After explaining the situation to some lady she put me on hold once again to look up the flight info. I sat there bouncing my stress ball off my desk and wondering where the hell my niece was! She wasn't the kind to just run off with some guy, hell I doubt she's even been intimate with one!_

 _"Hello?" A female called out on the phone, I sat up straight and put the receiver to my ear._

 _"Yes, have you found anything out?"_

 _"All we have here is that the flight was delayed two hours and was supposed to be canceled, but it took off at nine o'clock last night."_

 _"Okay, so where is the plane now?"_

 _"Has it not reached San Juan?"_

 _"No! That is why I am calling you! My niece was on that plane!" I gritted my teeth, why were people so dense? I called to ask where the plane was, so if it was in San Juan why would I need their help?_

 _"Oh, then I can not help you, ma'am, you're going to have to go to the authorities for this one!" She rushed and clicked off the phone before I could say anything else._

 ** _Back to the present…_**

The phone calls were endless and no one could understand why the airline wasn't being cooperative. About three weeks after she went missing we got a call from the airline saying that Chloe was in fact on the plane and they lost contact with the pilots about two hours into the flight. They have no idea where the plane is and of the people who were o the plane even alive anymore, but at least they were investigating it. Bullshit, it took them three weeks to just tell me something I already figured out!

I sat down on my couch and cupped my mug of coffee, I wasn't in the mood for it, but my body desperately needed something warm. Steve sat across from me jiggling his knees as he nervously watched the news.

"This afternoon the investigation has been downgraded from a search-and-rescue to a search-and-recovery effort as hope for finding the passengers of flight 284 alive has faded." The news anchor drowned on, I quickly shut the TV off and shook my head.

"What?" Steve asked.

"I was just thinking that if you never got her tickets to San Juan she'd still be here with us, safe and sound!"

"Oh, here we go again! I can never do anything right in your eyes, I will always be the guy who killed your sister! God forbid I actually want to spend time with my own daughter!"

"Oh, quit acting like you actually cared about her! You dreaded the moment Jenny told you she was pregnant!" I slammed my mug down on the coffee table and turned to him, I can't stand how he acts like the perfect parent and when Chloe was in need of help, he'd disappear.

"My business was barely on its own two feet, so of course I was terrified! I didn't know how to be a father and I sure as hell didn't want Jenny to get through that kind of a pain if the pregnancy didn't stick! I loved her, I still do and it is so goddamn hard to look at Chloe and not see Jenny. It's a painful reminder of what I lost and now… I lost her too." His face became red with anger as he glared at me, I knew Jenny should have left him the first time I saw him, it was always about money.

"You pushed Chloe away when she was here, when she was in the hospital you'd visit her maybe once or twice a week! She needed you and you were too far up your own ass to see it!"

"I was listening to Chloe! She told me when to visit so she wouldn't be bombarded with visitors every day! _You_ were the one to push your way in and ignore everything she said! She gave you a day and a time to visit didn't she?"

"That was years ago I can't remember!" I pushed my hair out of my eyes and looked down at the spilled coffee.

"Bullshit!"

"I was worried about her!"

"So was I! But I did as I was told because I wanted what was best for her!" Steve sighed and ran his hands over his face in frustration. "I don't know what else to do, I can't sleep, I can't eat and when I go to work I just crumble. The cops aren't telling me anything different and here we are arguing over something that happened three years ago… I can now see why Chloe needed space from us."

"I just hope she is okay," I whispered and looked out the window, I'd just wish she would pull up and be perfectly safe. But that would be too easy.

* * *

 **Chloe POV**

 **Week 10**

These past four weeks have been the most traumatic, tense and eye-opening experience in my short lifespan. Tori was still trying to be nice—not sure why— but a part of me kind of liked was nice to have another woman going through the same things as I, you know… women stuff. I didn't know what to do and I sure as hell wasn't going to go to Derek for advice. So I went to Tori. She gave me a sea sponge and we will just leave it at that.

She was the kind of friend that you were too scared to piss off, but not scared enough to not stand your ground. One second she'd be bitching at me for doing something wrong and then the next second, she'd be applauding me for standing up to her. It was giving me whiplash.

Simon was a whole different matter, ever since that nightmare I have been keeping my distance and he has noticed. The first couple weeks he got annoyed and asked if I was still mad about the scare in the woods—I wasn't— I just didn't want any part of that dream to come true. Now, he barely talked to me, he wouldn't even acknowledge my existence, I was unsure of how I felt about it. He was a good friend and he always stood up for me against his siblings.

Derek, on the other hand, is being his usual self, bossing people around and keeping us alive. I can't help but wonder how long we would have survived if it wasn't for him, I had no knowledge of how to build a shelter or start a fire. I sure as hell didn't know how he could keep so calm all the time. There was this tiny inkling of doubt that always lingers when I see Derek, why was he helping me? I'm not his family, I'm not even his friend, so why does he care if I get hurt or if I eat? Maybe it was Simon who was nagging him to let me tag along, or maybe it was just because I looked vulnerable. I can't do anything without getting hurt, and I could never reach the bananas on my own. I needed help all the time and maybe Derek would feel guilty for abandoning me?

Whatever, I can't over analyze every little thing they all do, it was getting tiresome. I just need to learn to be thankful and keep everything they have taught me in the back of my mind, just in case they do decide to kick me off the island. I would prefer to be in a group, you know a bigger number of people would scare off the predators than being alone would. But, I would rather be alone if need be instead of somewhere I was not wanted.

"Chloe, it looks like it's your turn to get breakfast," Tori said as she handed me the bowls. I frowned and looked at the markings on the tree. That made no sense, I got breakfast three days ago.

"No, it's Derek's turn!"

"Yeah, well he decided that today was the perfect time to choke the chicken." Tori rolled her eyes and stretched out her hand once again handing me the bowls. I squinted and gave her a weird look, what the hell was she talking about?

"Oh, you, poor naive child," she patted my shoulder and smiled. "Just go get the berries and I'll find Simon to help."

"No, it's fine. I can do it myself," I said sternly and made my way to the berries, I don't need help from anyone to just pick berries! I feel like I was just the annoying little kid that they all tried to get out of watching, no matter how hard I tried to not be an aggravation I just seemed to be in someone's way. I was getting fed up with it and I honestly just wanted to be treated equally.

"Hey," I jumped and spun around quickly warding off the intruder with the coconut bowls. Derek stood in the path his wet hair dripping down his body, it was a lot longer than when we got here—almost reaching his chin now. His five o'clock shadow was now becoming a full-on beard —with a couple of bald patches still showing. Simon was in the same boat as Derek, his blonde hair was longer and his beard was not as impressive. We were all looking a little rugged, the hair on my legs and armpit were the longest I have ever let them get and it was far from comfortable. I was itchy all the time because of the sand and my sweat-stained shirt, my hair had grown so long that I had to use a yucca rope for a hair tie.

"Don't do that!" I hissed as I bent down to pick up the bowls I threw, Derek bent down too and grabbed the one closest to him.

"Do what?"

"Scare me! I didn't hear you," I grumbled as I took the bowls out of his hands, I stood and turned back to the bushes. When I didn't hear him hear him leave I sighed and faced him.

"Yes?" I snapped.

He looked down at me and frowned, his green eyes brighter than usual, he bit the bottom of his lip and then looked away. I sighed and looked down at the half-filled bowl in my hands, at this pace, I would be picking berries until sunset!

"I-I have to pick berries so if you're just going to stand there…"

"I came to say hey, and Simon told me that you took over for me, which you didn't have to do."

"Well yeah, I kind of did! You were gone doing who knows what and everyone else was hungry so I was put on berry duty again!" I grumbled. I watched his face darken as he looked down at me.

"Why do you always bitch at me?I was coming here to say—"

"I bitch at you? Ha! You bitch at the littlest thing if I get hurt by accident I get yelled at like it's my fault!"

"It is your fault!"

"Forgive me for not being super graceful like you! I'm just someone you like to pick on and scare, I'm just a vulnerable—"

"Quit it with your victim act, I could care less about you and how many times you seem to fall and jump!" Derek yelled and stepped closer to me, I stepped back but was blocked by the bushes.

"I'm not a victim and I don't act like one! You treat me like a child and I try so hard to stay out of the way, but— never mind. I'm done arguing with you!"

"You're so hard to get along with!" Derek wiped his face with his hands and yelled, he looked down and glare before turning around and walking away. I wanted to scream and throw something at him when I try and explain my issues they'd just throw it back at me and say I was overthinking and crazy.

I wasn't. Derek treated all of us as kids and he was always in charge. My ideas never met his satisfaction and I was just a burden that happened to survive along with his siblings. Even the most cold-hearted person wouldn't leave a person alive in a sinking plane, they'd do the humane thing and help that person. My point being is that Derek wasn't anything special, yes I was thankful for him saving me and keeping me alive. But that does not mean I have to kneel at every word he said.

"What the hell happened?" Tori yelled as she turned the corner, I sighed and glared back at her.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, let's start with the fact that Derek came storming out of the woods muttering about you being a bitch and then I come here and you're giving me the death glare! So, what happened?" She sat down beside me and started picking berries into one of the bowls.

"Derek was being a dick and I stood my ground, I didn't really picture him as a guy to go and complain to his sister."

"Trust me he wasn't. He didn't know I was there, but I put the two together, you took over his shift and then you grow a pair and bitched him out!"

"I'm just tired of how he treats me, I want…. I just want to go home." I whimpered and wiped away a lone tear that escaped. I didn't want to show any more weakness to any of them, especially Tori. She was a good friend but I still didn't want her to find something else to pick on.

"We all do, and Derek might look calm and collective, but I can bet you a million berries that he is just as freaked as we are. He is probably dying without a good shower and his textbooks," Tori scoffed and shook her head.

"Textbooks?"

"Yeah, Derek always had his nose shoved into some kind of book, he graduated high school really early and then went right to college… if we weren't here right now he'd have his Ph.D. by now."

"How is that possible? He's only a year older than me!"

"Like I said, he graduated high school at sixteen and literally went to school for eight years straight, summers included." She shook her head and looked back at the path when she looked back her face was sullen and she avoided my gaze. "My dad tried telling him to take a break, you know? The school will always be there, but if he kept pushing his family away… then we wouldn't. Imagine our surprised when Sam showed up one Thanksgiving and didn't leave. There was something off about her and Derek like they didn't actually care for each other… my dad definitely sensed something. Then when they announced their engagement last year my dad was pissed." She paused and met my eye and smiled. "If you ever met him you would know that him getting pissed was very out of character…" She shrugged and gathered two bowls into her hands and stood up. "A couple months after their announcement… dad went missing and hasn't been seen since."

"Do you think Sam has something to do with him going missing? I mean from what Liz told me no one really liked her."

"That's an understatement! I couldn't stand being in the same room with her and Liz was right. She could read people as if they were books, and from the first dance at Sam… it was a big no."

"Did she do something to piss you off?"

"Who hasn't? But in a way, yes, she would boss Derek around and when he came over to visit with the family she would hog him the whole time! We barely saw him as being at school nearly 24/7 and when he wasn't there he was working in some nerd lab. I don't know how the hell Sam squeezed herself into his life," Tori shrugged as we started walking back.

When we got to the actual campsite no one was there. With my already sour mood, I just wanted to eat and then get the hell away from Derek. Maybe it was better for them to not be here? I mean it kind of pissed me off more than I went through that huge argument and he wasn't even here to eat the fucking berries! I need a vacation from these people, here I am getting pissed over berries!

I sat down on a log and placed the other two beside the fire, if they wanted to eat then they could come and get it themselves! I blocked all the sounds out and just focused on the ocean and my berries.

* * *

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Derek roared as he plowed his way into my tent, I shot up and covered my chest with my hand.

"W-what? You can't just burst in—"

"Where is Tori?"

"I d-don't know! I was in here the whole time—"

"So what did you do all day other than sitting on your ass and nap?" He glared and towered over me, I normally would have argued and bickered but I was drained. After I ate my breakfast I went to the beach and collected more seashells, and after that, I just didn't feel right. Something in my gut was churning and making me tired, so I came in here and laid down.

"Yeah, Derek, that's all I ever do. Just kick me off the island, please!" I said as I sat back down, the room was starting to spin and I'm pretty sure the small contents of my stomach were about to come back up.

"What's wrong?" Tori asked as she too entered the tent, I looked up and shrugged. I still had no idea why Derek was pissed, and it clearly wasn't going to be good as he turned on Tori.

"So many things, Tori! One, you let the fire die! What if a plane or a ship came and they didn't see the smoke! We could have been home by now! Another thing, why the hell is there no dinner ready? It was your night to collect the traps!"

"Bullshit! They're not going to see that smoke and assume its stranded people— plus its daytime! Also, it's your turn to get dinner, you skipped your morning shift so you can go and get dinner!" Tori got in Derek's face and yelled.

"I am sick and tired of taking care of you all! If you want dinner then go and get it yourself! I'm no longer building fires, collecting food or making sure the tents are secure! I'm just gonna sit back and relax, maybe help will come or maybe it won't." He stormed out of the tent and I quickly followed—not to go after him— I felt the familiar tightening of my throat and quickly ran to the bushes.

"Maybe if you took your head out of your ass you would notice that we all have been putting in an effort to do shit around here!" Tori yelled from the tent as I upchucked everything in my stomach.

Well, there goes my breakfast. All that work for this to happen… I need a nap. I tried to stand back up but the world was spinning too fast for me to catch myself. I fell sideways and watched as a pair of tan legs walked farther and farther away…

"Are you alright?" I snapped my head the other way and faced Tori, her dark eyes full of worry. Why? I just threw up, it happens and I used to it during the chemo. I tried to nod my head, but it felt too heavy so instead, I closed my eyes.

"Chloe, wake up!"

"I…" I took a deep breath and tried to force my eyes open, it worked a little but the sun was too bright. "I am."

"Simon! Go get Derek, something is wrong with her!" There was the sound of feet running on sand and then silence, the waves seemed calmer than before. It was peaceful. I just wanted to fall back asleep, I wanted to dream that I was home in the cold, bitter New York. Well, it's summer there now, but I wouldn't have noticed. I had so many ideas for stories and deadlines to do, I would have been cooped up in my study to do anything summer related.

The sound of someone running on sand came again, stirring me out of my quick nap. I opened my eyes again and this time the light wasn't as bright, how longs I out for? I looked around and saw Simon coming my way along with Tori.

"Oh, you're awake! Thank god!" Tori exclaimed.

"Why?" I whispered.  
"You were out cold for like three hours! Derek won't come and help because he's an ass, but what's new?" I looked out at the ocean and frowned, it felt like I had just closed my eyes for three seconds, not hours!

"I'm going to the lake," I said as I stood and brushed the sand off my butt, not that it made a difference, I was covered in sand daily! I didn't wait for a reply or a nod, I just left, I needed cold, clean water.

Once I saw the lake I quickly took off my shirt as I ran towards the water, I barely paused to take everything off before I was deep underwater. It felt nice to be sand free for a brief second, and the cold water relieved the heat from today. I ducked under and sunk as deep as I dared, letting the water run through my hair and getting the sand out.

When I came up for air there was a slight chill that made me shiver, there was an odd sensation coming from the back of my head. You know that feeling you get when someone stares at you when you're not looking? Well, it felt like that, but when I turned around no one was there… or I couldn't see anyone. As much as I loved the cool water against my overheating body, I felt too uncomfortable to continue in the lake.

I jumped out and shoved my shorts on while I collected my scattered clothes, it was a lot colder than before I went in the water. I was shivering nonstop as I tried to clip my bra, after the third attempt I said fuck it an put my shirt on over it. It was getting dark and no one would be able to notice that I wasn't wearing it. I stuffed it into my back pocket and headed towards the camp, hopefully, they started a fire.

I reached the lining of the woods and I heard hushed whispers coming from the fire pit, but no fire going. When I came out of the woods the whispering stopped and Simon and Tori both turned towards me then back to each other. Then they did that annoying twin telepathic conversation… something was up.

"Hey!" Tori cheered a little too cheery if you ask me.

"Hello, are you guys going to start a fire?" I asked and looked down at Simon who was clearly avoiding looking at me.

"Actually, no, we were going to bed, you can try and get Derek down if you want?" Simon said, standing up abruptly. I frowned and looked over at Tori.

"He's at the cliff, the place you guys both like to go when you're pouting!" She smiled and headed to the boy's tent. I guess I was sleeping along too?

"I don't pout!" I grumbled as they both entered the tent. Why were they going to bed so early? I wasn't tired at all, and I didn't want to just sit here alone… but Derek was out of the question. He would only further my already sour mood, and I didn't need that… So why did I find myself walking up the mountain—in the dark— twenty minutes later?

I told myself a million times that I was so desperate for communication that I would rather have someone to bicker at than be alone. Hmmm, seemed like a stretch, but whatever, I doubt he'd be in the mood to even talk.

"What do you want?" Derek grumbled with his back towards me, his body facing the ocean. I hesitated, why was I up here? Did I really want to deal with his attitude? When I didn't answer right away he turned towards me and his frowned seemed to deepen —if that was even possible. "My question still stands."

"I-I just wanted to see if you were staying up here all night… I mean it's cold, and you don't have a… okay, you do have a shelter." I looked at the smaller sized shelter that was propped up on a tree, how the hell did he build that so quickly?

"I'm fine."

"Okay, but you don't have a fire and the wind is too strong up here to build one! Plus, you didn't have dinner." I sputtered out. Why did I care if he ate or if he was cold? He was the worlds biggest ass I have ever met, and he didn't know when to say thank-you or 'I'm sorry."

"I'm fine!" He snapped. I bit my lower lip and looked down, I can _not_ cry right now! Imagine my embarrassment, I come up here to see if he wanted company or help and he just screams, so instead of just leaving … I start to cry! Goddamn, these sensitive tear ducts! I cleared my throat and tried shook my head as if that'll shake the stupid tears away…

"O-okay…" I quickly turned and blindly walked down the hill, it was already incredibly dark and the tears weren't helping at all! I surprisingly made it to the campsite safe and sound. and that is when I really broke down. I didn't know how to make a fire or put up traps to catch squirrels, I barely knew how to collect the right berries and stay alive. The only thing that has been keeping me alive was Derek and he was pissed at me. At all of us. I crawled toward my tent and moved to the corner, usually, Tori would be here and it would a lot warmer. It took forever, but eventually, my exhaustion outweighed my shivering and I passed out.

* * *

When I awoke, my face was shoved into a sad pocket, I sat up sputtering sand out of my mouth and trying to wipe the ones that collected near my eyes. They were all bunched up from the tears and when I peeled them away it felt like I was ripping my skin off. I took everything for granted, I took my bed for granted and my bathroom, I took my heat and A/C for granted. If I ever get home I will know how to spend time with family and thank the gods for the things for my safety.

I stood up an stretched my achy muscles and my inner porn star came out when I groaned from the crack. I giggled and headed outside of the tent, usually, everyone would be up by now, but after last night they're all probably doing their own thing. I frowned an took a stroll down towards the shore, the cold sand felt nice on my blistered feet. I had to ditch my sneakers a couple weeks ago because of all the rips and holes, it was just easier to go barefoot.

I frowned as I reached the rock wall, I was pretty sure that that was where we left the boat. I remember having to climb the rocks in soaked clothing, and I checked a couple days ago to make sure the boat was still there. But it was gone, no trace of it anywhere!

I spun back and ran back up to the beach, we had to do something about the boat being gone! That was our last chance of getting anywhere, it was our last hope. When I arrived at the campsite no one was there, so I headed to the cliff. I made sure to keep an ear out for anyone who might be in the woods getting food, but I couldn't find anyone. Not one sign of Tori, Simon or Derek. I could feel my heart start to race from panic as I thought of being stranded on this god awful island!

There was no sign of Derek at the cliff but his tiny fire was dying down, so if he left it couldn't have been that long ago. They wouldn't leave me here alone…. would they? I don't believe it, Tori was a bitch in the beginning, but we became friends. She wouldn't leave!  
I numbly walked down the hill and only paused when I came to the fork in the road, maybe they were all in the lake? I quickened my pace and pushed my way through the tall grass, I just needed to see one person, I didn't want to be alone! I broke through the woods and desperately scanned the water for anyone, when I saw the familiar black hair popping out of the water I nearly cried in relief. Derek was still here, maybe the other two were too.

The relief quickly turned into nerves as I realized that I had to tell Derek that the boat was missing, and he was already pissed at me. Derek turned as I was about to get the nerve to call him, he looked shocked and that quickly distinguished and changed into anger.

"What are you doing—"

"I'm not eavesdropping or watching you swim," I looked away as I remembered that he was in fact naked. I willed myself to not blush and looked away if I could just tell him what I came here to instead of looking like a major idiot. "I can't find Tori or Simon, a-and t-the boat is missing." Derek looks sharpened and his head tilted to the right and he took a couple steps towards me.

"What did you say?"

"T-the boat, it's gone and I can't find Tori or Simon!" I screamed, pushing past the waves of emotion bombarding me. I peaked a look at him and saw that his face was as red as a tomato, and if we were in a cartoon there would be steam blowing out of his ears.

"Throw me my pants," Derek finally muttered and pointed to the rock that his worn out pants laid out on. I sighed and threw them towards him and turned my back as he dressed. It was quicker than I would have thought because soon enough he was walking ahead of me, and I had to jog to keep up with him.

His reaction to the boat actually being gone was a lot calmer than mine, he just took a deep breath and looked out into the ocean. "The tide probably swept it out, that doesn't mean Tori and Simon were on it." He looked down and me and frowned, I wanted to believe him and say 'sure, of course, the one day the boat goes missing so does Tori and Simon. Makes perfect sense!' But it didn't.

"No, they wouldn't be gone this long, Derek!"

"How on earth do you know when they left? You don't have a clock!" He grumbled, I grabbed his wrist and looked at his watch, it was almost three o'clock. When I woke there was still only 71 days, today being the 72nd. Derek marks a tally every day at ten, it was his routine, but he usually slept by the water, not on the cliff.

"Did you mark the tree?"

"Yes," he said as he claimed back his arm.

"When I woke up there was only 71 marks, which means it was before ten. I haven't seen Tori or Simon all day!" I ranted, starting to pace in the sand, what if they fell down a cliff and got hurt and we didn't know? What if they were on that boat and a whale came up and crushed them? What if a shark came and thought they were a seal and attacked them?

"Chloe, calm down!" I snapped out of my panic and focused on Derek's incredibly green eyes, it was like he was wearing contacts. "They're probably exploring, we can try and look for them again." He headed towards the mountain and I had no choice but to follow, I half expected him to make me stay on the shore just in case they showed up. That was always my duty when we all did group searches, I was the weak one.

* * *

We searched the island for what seemed like hours and not one sign of them being here. Derek refused to give up though, instead, he ordered me to stay on shore—told you— while he stays on the cliff looking for any sign of them. I knew there wasn't going to be, I had a bad feeling the other night and then this crap happens… just like the plane. Maybe I should have stayed the night at a hotel and then caught an early flight the next morning, I would have avoided this situation altogether.

It was now long after sundown and Derek were still at the cliff, at least he had a fire. I tried and failed miserably at starting one, I wasn't good at being in nature and I certainly hated camping. After sitting in the dark for a while I finally had enough and headed towards the mountain, I wasn't going to freeze tonight and I undeniably didn't want to be alone again.

"D-Derek?" I shivered as I reached the top of the cliff, I could barely see how dark it had become and there was no fire.

"What?"

"Are you coming back down?"

"No."

"Derek, you're not going to be able to see them in the dark right now anyway, please just come back down…" I stepped closer in hopes that he'd change his mind, and because his body was blocking the wind.

"Go away, Chloe."

"No, stop pushing me away! I'm stranded here too, they left me too!"  
"You're no one to them! They didn't care about you on the plane or when you were taking a fit for two days in the freezing cold! They didn't care when you almost died…They don't give two shits about you!" He roared. I stood there stunned at how much his words stung, sure I barely knew them, but I figured we all kind of matter to each other. I cared about all of them as if we were all part of one big family… Clearly not.

"Then why did they leave you? You're their brother, you were the only thing holding us together! I can't go down there alone, it's so cold and scary! I don't even like the dark! I don't understand why they would leave!" I yelled and then ran back to the lonely campsite. I was hurting all over. With Tori and Simon went it felt like someone opening a healing cut, it forced me to realize that I am stranded on an island in the middle of the Caribbean with a guy I barely knew and could barely stand. I had no idea how I was going to survive like this anymore.

* * *

 **AN: I hope you enjoyed the Chapter! I might do POV switches in some chapter but not all, if y'all like it. Let me know!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own DP**

 **AN: Sorry for not posting for like two months! I've just been dealing with a ton of bullshit and I had no motivation to write…**

 **anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter**

* * *

 _Previously…_

 _"Then why did they leave you? You're their brother, you were the only thing holding us together! I can't go down there alone, it's so cold and scary! I don't even like the dark! I don't understand why they would leave!" I yelled and then ran back to the lonely campsite. I was hurting all over. With Tori and Simon went it felt like someone opening a healing cut, it forced me to realize that I am stranded on an island in the middle of the Caribbean with a guy I barely knew and could barely stand. I had no idea how I was going to survive like this anymore._

* * *

 **Week Twelve**

Laurens POV

I sat in the cramped office nervously, waiting for whoever Steve hired to find Chloe to actually arrive. So far I was not impressed, he was fifteen minutes late and form what I could see from his office, he was far from organized. There was a leaning stack of papers placed on the edge of his desk that looks like it'll collapse at any minute.

"Sorry I am late, traffic was a bitch! You know how the city can be in the summer, everyone doing their own thing and don't really care about traffic laws…" A younger man stepped in, his tie was crooked and his hair looked like he had just rolled out of bed. Leave it to Steve to pick the cheapest private investigator, it's not like we are trying to find his daughter or anything. I still don't see what Jenny ever saw in him, but she made her mistakes and thankfully someone good came out of their marriage—Chloe.

"Alright, I am Jimmy Samson, and you're Mr. and Mrs. Saunders I presume," he looked down at a clip board and pursed his lips.

"No, I'm Dr. Fellows….Chloe's aunt." I stuck out my hand and gave him a quick smile, his gaze lingered a little too long for my liking, his eyes reminded me of my brother Ben. Blue with a tint of green. His handshake was firm and sweaty, I quickly pulled my hand back and wiped it on my pants.

"Sorry for that! Okay, lets see here…" he flipped through a bunch of papers on his clipboard and then frowned, I resisted rolling my eyes as he walked over to his desk and shuffled through the leaning tower of papers. I looked over at Steve who was watching Jimmy intently, his head slightly tilted to the side.

"Aha! Found it! Okay, so…" I turned my attention back to Jim as he read over his notes, I watched as his face tensed and then he bit his lower lip. "Alright, so if I'm reading this correctly, your daughter boarded a plane, March 15, 2016, and that plane has disappeared?"

"Correct."

"Okay, so why is this coming to me and not to the authorities? I don't…hmmm—"

"Of course we went to the authorities! Why else would we be here? They're not telling us anything, there are no other families coming forward saying their sons, daughter, mothers, father etc are missing! Chloe was not the only one who boarded that plane! I want to know where my fucking daughter is!" Steve roared as he stood up, I couldn't help but smile. I always took Steve as the push over kind of guy, he always was when it came to Chloe, but with her being gone he has really taken a stand.

"Calm down, Mr. Saunders, I am just trying to figure this out right now." He clicked his tongue as he looked down at his notes, I wanted to scream at how difficult this whole thing was! They have technology t find a missing plane, the pilots had to have said something before the plane went down!

Jim sighed and scratched his head, making sure to fix his over grown hair before putting his notes down. "I'm sure you're both well aware of the cost of a PI in New York city, my hourly wage is 100 an hour. I will log in my 'hours' every Friday and billings would go out to you on Saturday," he looked at both of us to make sure we were following along.

"Money is not an issue, I just want my daughter found!"

"Alright, I'll start with getting the passenger lust and finding their families, see why they're not concerned. It could be that most of the passengers were one family… who knows, keep in mind that I'll try my best, but this is over my head!" He sighed and stood up, I followed suit and made my way to the door.

"We'll be in touch," I said right before I left the office. I just couldn't be in there any longer, this shouldn't be happening at all! I let out a sigh and sat down on one of the chairs in the waiting room, I needed to collect myself.

"Lauren," I looked up as Steve walked out of the hallway. "I got an email from Chloe's landlord, she said that since Chloe hasn't come back we have to clean out her apartment."

"What? That's bullshit! You're still paying the rent so why the fuck is she getting kicked out?"

"In their mind if no one is actually living in her apartment then it should go to someone in need. They don't care how much I offer to pay, she's gone to them and never coming back. We should just go before they decided to throw it all out" He shoved his phone into his pocket and sighed. He was right, Chloe use to tell me on our rare phone calls, that her landlord wasn't the greatest guy out there, but it was the cheapest apartment she could afford. She was so proud to be on her own and making her own money, she liked her independence.

* * *

"Wow," I breathed as I stepped into Chloe's apartment, I will admit it, I was expecting this apartment to be rundown and depressing, but instead it was … beautiful. The hallways were wide and painted a light green as I walked further down it opened up into a small living room. I couldn't help but smile at the mismatched furniture and the worn out baby blue blanket thrown over the side of the couch. I was glad Chloe was doing things on her own, when Jenny died I was terrified how she would have turned out. I didn't want her to end up being the kind of kid who gets whatever she wants by running to daddy. I wanted her to become independent and she did… just not the way I had wanted.

I lost Jenny and I refused to lose Chloe when she became sick I panicked. What if she never woke up again? What if it spread to her liver or heart? I promised Jenny I would take care of her and look at her now. She's missing.

Snap out of it, Lauren! I shook my head and looked around the tiny living room, there was a white door to my right. I felt the coolness of the doorknob in my hand before I knew what I was even doing, I pushed open the door. A full sized bed sat in the middle of the room, its blankets tightly tucked into the mattress. The walls were a light pink and there were movie posters plastered all over, it was like walking into her room before she got sick.

She still had a love for movies, but when she grew ill she focused more on school as if dreaming about her future would curse her into not having one. I was glad to see that she was becoming her old self again, it settled the tiny knot I had in the pit of my stomach. I was kept up late at night thinking Chloe was hanging out with the wrong kinds of people and she would get into a bad situation.

I walked in farther and looked at the picture frame sitting on her dresser, I couldn't help but giggle at the image in front of me. It was my senior year of high school and Jenny had just brought Steve home for the first time, we sat in front of the Christmas tree. Steve was kissing Jenny's cheek as she smiled cheekily towards the camera, I sat beside them beaming.

I was happy that Jenny was happy—after Ben had died she beat herself up about it. She would say that she should have known he was depressed, she should have saved him from himself. Steve brought something out of Jenny that we haven't seen in a long time, I remember that Christmas as if it was just yesterday. Dad was annoyed that Jenny hadn't told us ahead of time that she was bringing a guest—especially a guy— over, so mom had to make the portions a little bit smaller than normal.

"What are you staring at?" I jumped and quickly turned to see Steve standing in the doorway, he looked so different than the picture, his hair was shorter and graying on the sides, his eyes were no longer the bright blue they use to be they were now sported with dark circles.

"The picture from your first Christmas with us," I smiled and handed him the picture frame. I watched as he searched the picture, looking at the familiar face that he fell in love with, and how Chloe's smile looked just like hers.

"Chloe is a spitting image of her…" He whispered. I smiled and looked around her room once more, there were tons of tiny pictures of Chloe and friends and family members. I felt tears spring to my eyes when I saw the worn out koala bear sitting on her nightstand— it was my gift to Chloe on the day she was born, it was almost the same size as her.

"Hopefully she finds someone better than what Jenny found, she needs someone more dependable than me." I turned to Steve and frowned, what was he talking about? He clearly saw my confusing an pointed to the picture in his hand. "This is the only picture she has of me, and she's not even in it. Which says a lot."

* * *

"You have to tie it tighter, Chloe!" Derek growled as he shoved me aside and pulled the string harder, so hard that it snapped.

"Brilliant!" I muttered and received the death glare, I rolled my eyes and fixed my attention on the side of the tent. We had a wind storm the other night and it blew away some of the vital parts of our tent—the whole roof actually— and I was tired of shivering myself to sleep every night.

Normally I would have just pushed Derek's attitude aside—he did loose both of his siblings two weeks ago— but this was bullshit. I wasn't going to be walked on just because he was cranky! I spun away from the tent and walked into the woods, it would take him a while to realize I'm not there anymore.

I walked deep into the woods until I could barely hear the waves crashing, it was a lot more peaceful in here. I could hear the birds chirping and I loved the way the sun would shine through the trees. If I closed my eyes I could pretend I was back at home, and I just happened to be playing in the woods. The birds calling out to each other and the breeze brushing my hair into my face…

"What are you doing?" My eyes fluttered open and met bright green ones.

"Pretending," I muttered and turned to look back up at the trees and took in the warmth peeping from behind them.

"Pretending what?" He impatiently snapped, I took a deep breath and looked back at him.

"That I am anywhere but here!"

"Oh yeah, Chloe that seems like a brilliant idea. Let's forget about fixing _your_ tent and just pretend that we are not going to die on this fucking island!"

"Don't talk like that!"

"Why? I'm being realistic! we are getting off this island anytime soon, Tori and Simon are gone and took the only way off with them!" I quickly looked down as the familiar pain of tears threatening to fall.

"They're probably out getting help! Stop being such an asshole!" I heard him scoff as I started walking away, he was moodier ever since Simon and Tori left. Or maybe I was just noticing it more often became I had no one to go to. I was all alone in this.

* * *

It's funny how quick someone can adapt to a drastic change in their life, thinking back to the first day I stepped onto this island… I thought I would never like the people I was stranded with. I thought I was for sure going to die that same night, how could I survive with such deranged people. I never thought in a million years that I would be missing Tori and most of all that I'd be worried about her. Why did they leave? I had so many questions that will probably go unanswered…

I plumped down on one of the logs near the campsite and watched as the sun started to set. Derek and I have successfully avoided each other for the rest of the day, but dinner was quickly approaching and there was nothing prepared. I had no motivation to even go scurry up some barriers yet alone look for Derek. Besides, I think it's best that he and I give each other space while we figure out what the hell happened to the other two.

"Looks like we are having something other than fruit for dinner!" Derek boomed as he turned the corner, I quickly wiped away the stray tears that lingered on my cheeks. I turned to see Derek holding a long stick with a dead fish at the end.

"How'd you do that?"

"It's called spear fishing, Chloe." he rolled his eyes and placed the stick in between his legs. I watched as he carefully pulled the fish off of the stick and placed it in Tori's coconut bowl. Each morning I brought all four of them with me to pick berries, hoping that when I returned I would see Simon and Tori arguing in their spots. But every morning was the same, a grumpy Derek and no Tori or Simon. we sat in silence as Derek skinned the fish and started the fire, I wanted to ask how he was coping… he seemed like the same guy just moodier.

"They'll come back," he muttered, snapping me out of my own thoughts. I looked over at him and frowned, he was now sitting beside me looking out at the choppy water. I looked out into the distances and just wished with all my might that I'd see the raft and Simon and Tori would laugh at how worried we were.

But that would never happen. I knew deep down that something horrible happened and I probably will never see them again, whether it be us dying here or…

"Derek, I don't think they're—"

"I know." I looked at him sharply and swallowed my anger away, I could tell that he was pained to even think about his siblings were dead, but hearing it would be too much.

"What do we do?" I whispered.

"We survive. They left for a reason and I refuse to believe they left to abandon us, something went wrong… or they found help. Either way, we have to keep on living…" He stood up and looked out into the darkening sky. After a while, he sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. "We should probably cook dinner."

"Okay," I said as I stood up beside him, but he stayed in place. I wanted to help him somehow but I was clueless, he was a guy who barely smiled, how the hell was I suppose to comfort him now? We stood there for what felt like forever, when my legs tarted to grow tired I headed back to my tent, Derek needed his own space to cope with the loss of his siblings. Me hanging around him asking if he was okay every two seconds was not going to help if he needed me he knew where to find me. I just hoped with every part of my being that they would show up, safe and sound.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own DP**

 **AN: Okay! I'm seriously sorry for the long break, but I got my fingers slammed in a car door so writing right now is tough. Plus I'm trying to balance school, work, and social life.**

* * *

 _Previously…._

 _We stood there for what felt like forever. When my legs started to grow tired I headed back to my tent, Derek needed his own space to cope with the loss of his siblings. Me hanging around him asking if he was okay every two seconds was not going to help if he needed me he knew where to find me. I just hoped with every part of my being that they would show up, safe and sound._

* * *

 **Week 17**

"One-hundred-and-nineteen.," I whispered as I dug the sharpened rock into the worn out tree. Has it really been that long? I looked up to observe the markings, each one different, some were messy and sloppy while others barely seemed to go past the surface. It was easy to see which one Derek had done, they were deep and angry, I don't know if he took out his frustrations on the tree or if it was just because of his strength. Probably both.

I looked out past the tree and observed as Derek waddled knee-deep into the ocean, holding his handmade spear stick with intense concentration. I noticed the way his head would move slightly as the waves receded, and if I were closer I could probably see his eyes following the fish he was trying to catch.

I sat there and watched him push his overgrown hair away from his face for the millionth time. He was skinnier than when we first got here, but he somehow still looked…healthy. His skin had a deep olive hue that really brought out his eyes, a part of me was envious of how easily his body took in the heat while I just burned. If my math was right, then it had to be July now and the weather was just going to keep on getting hotter. What if we were here during the winter? Does it snow here? Probably not, but the nights were already cold enough, who knows how it'll be by then…

"How long?" Derek's grumbled, I snapped out of my brief panic and squinted up at him. You would think with his height he would have the decency to stand in front of me so he was blocking the sun, but no. After a couple of awkward seconds of my mind trying o figure out what he was referring to, Derek did me a solid and pointed to the tree with his infamous impatient look.

I wish I could say that things have improved between us, but they haven't. We've just learned to live on our own and kind of avoid each other. If there's a fight, Derek goes up by the cliff for a couple of days and only comes down to fish.

"Oh, uh… one-hundred-and-nineteen …. so sixteen weeks," I whispered looking down at the sand. He always found a way to make me feel stupid.

"Seventeen." He grunted as he sat down beside me, which caught me by surprise, he typically avoided me at all costs, especially if his fishing adventures were unsuccessful.

"What?"

"One hundred and nineteen days ….makes seventeen weeks," he said as he looked out into the ocean.

"Is that not what I said?"  
"Nope, you said sixteen." He rushed. You see what I mean? I misspoke and he had to correct me, and sure it wouldn't have been such a big deal if he didn't do it with _everything_! If I started a fire differently than he does, he had to stop me and show me the right way. Or if I went off the path to find more berries he'd say I was being stupid and reckless, and insist on having me go back on the path.

Sometimes just being near him pissed me off, it felt as if he was judging how I sat or how many breaths I took. Maybe, I'm just paranoid, but can you really blame me? Derek made me second guess everything I did, he made me feel helpless.

I abruptly stood up, dusting the sand off of my butt and turned towards the woods.

"Where are you going?" he asked without turning towards me. I blew out a rush of hot air and clenched my jaw.

"Just going to," I waved my hand towards the path that leads to the waterfall. "I'm going swimming."

"There's an ocean right in front of you, why are you going to the waterfall?" I softly let out a string of curse words and automatically clamped my mouth shut. I couldn't help it, and I tried my best to muffle it, but -pants —who surprisingly has the worlds best hearing—clearly heard it.

"What?"

"Nothing," I mumbled, but he thought it was something. I watched in annoyance as he quickly over towered me and raised an eyebrow.

"Chloe, we might not like each other, but I think the mature thing to do would be to at least try and be friends—"

"That is classic! Especially coming from you!"  
"I'm not following," his dark brows knitted together as he looked down at me in utter confusion. Of course, he wouldn't think what he was doing was out of the ordinary, he's clueless!

"Derek, you're the one who has been avoiding me ever since Tori and Simon left! I had nothing to do with their disappearance and quite frankly I thought it would have been smarter too, I don't know, become closer I guess. To learn to stick together, but instead, you hid in your little campsite up the mountain and left me to take care of everything else!"

"Chloe, I think you're old enough—" I let out a frustrated scream and took off into the woods. That may have just proven his point that maybe I'm not mature enough to act my age… Of course, I knew how to take care of myself, but not everyone took the how-to-survive-on-an-island course in school!

I quickly stopped when I came to the fork in the paths, I could go to the lake, but then it'd be easier for him to find me… if he even wanted to look. Of course, this island isn't that big so it really wouldn't be hard for him to find me eventually. So instead I walked passed the lake and past the path to the cliff.

I walked as far as my legs could physically take me which wasn't as far as I would have liked. After my fiftieth trip over a branch I had to take a break, I was surprised at how winded I had become at that last fall. Yeah, let's blame the fall and ignore the fact that I am very out of shape.

Once my breathing came back to normal I realized how hungry I was, I don't even remember the last time I actually ate something. I skipped out on dinner and let Derek have the small fish he caught, it felt wrong taking something I wouldn't have liked. Plus, Derek needed it more than I did, he was bigger and I could easily survive off of the berries. But as of right now, I was starving and it would be foolish to crawl back to the campsite right now.

 _Okay, Chloe, you can find some food on your own, you don't need Derek for everything!_

Of course, I don't, but I've never been this far away from the campsite and I have no idea if any of these berries are edible. I slowly headed toward the bush that looked similar to the ones that the dark berries grow on, they looked about the same. They were a little fuzzier, but that could have just been from not enough sunlight. I stared at it as if willing it to tell me if it was poisonous or not, but no answers from above came. All I got was another loud grumble from my stomach. I squeezed my eyes shut and chewed fast, there was no turning back now.

 _Look on the bright side, if it was poisonous then I just got an expressway off this island and Derek won't have to worry about me!_

Well, that was dark. I shuddered and opened my eyes, the berry tasted the same as the ones near the lake so I'm just going to assume that they're safe. I pulled the bottom of my shirt out and made a small pouch for the berries and plucked as many as I dared.

Once I was satisfied with the size of the pouch, I stood up and headed towards the river… or where I hoped the river was. The landmarks didn't look familiar at all, but I surpassingly wasn't worried, I was completely content with just eating my berries and walking in the woods.

It was like my body knew what I needed before my brain told me on how to do it because I somehow reached the lake safe and sound. I plopped myself down on a rock and dipped my feet in, which had become sore from all that walking.

I don't know how long I sat there staring at the waterfall, it was not long ago that all four of us were here having fun. Sure, I wasn't too happy about being thrown in but I would give anything to see Simon and Tori safe. "Damn it!" I hissed as the last of my berries fell into the water, I giggled as I watched them sink to the bottom. I felt warm all over, kinda like the sun was giving me a big, warm hug.

"Are you going to just sit here all night?" Derek boomed, I looked at me and frowned.

"How…" I looked around in confusion, how did he find me? I could have sworn I was hidden from him!

"Chloe?"

"Yeah?" I looked over at him and smiled if he wasn't so mean looking all the time he could be cute.

"Where did you go?"

"I've been here this whole time, Derek!" He frowned and stepped forward, looking between me and the water.

"Come back to the campsite so we can talk, please?" H asked quietly, I had to strain to hear it. I frowned and stood upon the rock which made me about the same height as him.

"Under one condition!"

"What?"

"You have to stop being a douche!" I declared into the forest and giggled after—my voice sounded hilarious. Derek frowned and then nodded, I took what I could get and followed him back to the camp. every five seconds or so I would catch him looking back at me, I don't know why. Anyone could hear me stomping my way through the woods if they tried to.

"I'm…" I stopped walking and put my hands up on my hips, I wanted to tell him that I wasn't going anywhere, but for some reason, it just wasn't coming out correctly. This seemed to have worried Derek, he was looking down at me with great confusion. "I'm not, uh, I'm not gonna be going anywhere… without you." I raised a brow and hoped he understood. But maybe that sounded too weird? He just stared at me for a long time, his face not showing an ounce of emotion. Was I speaking English?

"Chloe, did you eat anything out there?" I followed the direction of his long arm as it pointed towards the woods.

"That is where I went, yes!"

"No, Chloe, that's not what I asked!"

"You're very grumpy!"

"You're acting weird! Did you eat anything out there?" I tried to look back into the woods but I felt his hand on my chin pulling my face back to his. His eyes searched mine and they began to fill with worry, his hand traveled from my chin to the tiny nook of my neck and jaw.

"What are you doing?"

"Your heart is racing, what did you do?"

"I'm fine!" I blushed and pushed his hand away, I knew he was thinking that it was racing because of my odd behavior. In reality, it was most likely from Derek touching me —not that I like him in that way— it's been weeks since I've been touched at all.

"What did you do when you were in the woods?"

"I walked, and then I fell so I sat there, I think I hurt my leg again," I looked down at my bruised leg and noticed the purple stains on my shirt. "Oh! I ate berries too!" I held out my shirt to him showing off the stains.

"Where did you get them?"

"I'm not stupid, Derek! They were the same kind of berries we eat daily, god you treat me like a kid!"

"That's because you act like one!"

"I do not…" I whimpered and looked down the sand, okay maybe I do, but I never really had a chance to act like one, I had to grow up fast.

"Chloe, do you feel alright?"

"I feel happy! You should try it sometime!"

"Jesus," Derek let out a long sigh and turned towards the water placing his hands behind his head.

"You should just go with the flow, stop worrying about everything so much, you know?" I tried to elegantly sit down but my body moved faster than I anticipated and I ended up plopping awkwardly onto the sand.

"Chloe," he turned back to me and gave me a cold stare. "If I went with the flow we would be dead a long time ago!"

"Oh quit being overdramatic!" I snapped. He was probably right though, he was the -[rr[one who taught all of us how to survive. If he wasn't so uptight and on a tight schedule we'd all would have starved or froze to death. Okay, maybe not froze but without the shelters, it would have been a hundred time more miserable.

We fell silent for awhile, each of us just staring at the water. Wouldn't he be happier if he didn't have to worry about poor Chloe getting lost in the woods or falling off the cliff on accident? He'd be happier if I was poisoned, he could focus on finding his siblings by himself with no extra baggage.

"Chloe, what berries did you eat? These are not the same as the ones we eat every morning. You don't act like this!"

"Why do you care? I perfectly fin—" I felt myself sway and a tight knot forming in the pit of my stomach. Great.

"Tell me where you found the berries! This could be serious!" He grabbed my shoulders forcing me to look at him. His eyebrows were furrowed and his green eyes looked wild… but so pretty.

"I'm fine! I just… got dizzy," I finally said quickly breaking the prolonged eye contact. The warm buzz was no longer there and fatigue quickly took its place, maybe something was wrong with me. It made no sense though I ate the berries we always eat! I felt my eyelids begin to grow heavy and it felt like my head just got five hundred pounds heavier.

"Chloe?" I felt strong hands shake my shoulder gently trying to pull me out of my daydream haze. But it was no use, my brain felt as if I was treading through a word of cotton. It was too painful to keep my eyes open, the sun was just too bright for me. I could feel myself falling asleep and no matter how hard I tried to fight it I ended up losing.

* * *

I knew before I even opened my eyes that I wasn't in the same place where I fell asleep. I was warm, and I could no longer hear the ocean or feel the shelter sway from the wind. I could hear a faint beeping coming from above me and if I tried really hard I could hear people bickering in the distance. Where the hell was I?

I pried my eyes open to just be blinded by even more light and no matter how many times I blinked it wasn't getting any better. Why on earth was it so bright? When I tried to bring my hands up to my eyes they wouldn't move past my elbow.

There was movement to my right causing me to stop moving, I tried to hear what was going on but my heart racing seemed to deafen me. All I could hear was a slight squeak and footsteps, whatever it was it was getting closer.

"Ms. Saunders? Can you hear me?" I jumped at the sound of the female voice right by my ear.

"Y-yeah, w-where am I?" I looked towards the voice and tried to open my eyes again but it was no use. I was still blinded.

"Just relax, you're safe and sound," a loud wail came from near the voice, it almost sounded like a baby crying. The voice hushed along with the crying and began humming Daydream Believer. Soon enough it stopped as did the humming.

"W-what was that?"

"It's okay, just sit back and relax," I did as she said and I felt my hand being guided towards something to my right. It was placed on top of something soft and moving, I tried to pull it away but the it was as if it was stuck in place. Someone else was here, I could feel it.

"Chloe?" I recognized the voice, I grew up around it…. but I couldn't put my finger on who it was. "Chloe, you should have know better than to get yourself in this mess!" The thing under my hand started to squirm even more, it was making sounds that sounded awfully close to what a baby would sound like. What mess was it talking about?

The person squeezed my arm so tight that it caused the wailing to start up again, I tried to pull my arm back but its grasp was too strong. I could feel its hot breath against my face as if it was leaning in closer.

"It's a bad idea, just forget it ever happened and move on!" It clicked and I spun towards the voice.

"Aunt Lauren?"

* * *

I startled awake, shaking my head at the invisible intruder. I brought my hands up to my face and slowly made my way to my eyes. They were still there and so was my vision. I was fine. It was just a terrible nightmare!

Once my eyes adjusted to the dark I was able to see that I was no alone in the tent. In the opening Derek sat with his back to me, but I could tell that his chin was rested on the top of his knees. He probably fell asleep like that and who knows how long I've been asleep for. Why was he sitting there though? He could have easily sat by the fire or even in his own tent.

"Are you hungry?" He grumbled, I jumped and placed my hand on my chest. How the hell did he know I was awake? "You talk in your sleep, so I figured once you stopped talking you were up." He turned back towards me and raised a brow. Alright, that was freaky…

"Yeah, kinda…" I stood up and stretched out the knots in my back, it was completely dark now, the sun was almost past noon on the sundial —that Derek had made— when I passed out. When I sat down on a log Derek handed me a bowl of assorted fruit and some kind of almond.

I could feel him watching me as if he expected I was going to pass out again at any moment. We sat there silently eating our own food, this was unusual for him. He never ate any meal with me since Tori and Simon left. He was never this close to me for this long.

"Okay, spill it!" I said putting my bowl on the ground.

"Spill what?"

"You clearly have something to say so just spill it already!" I knew he just be fuming with my stupidity, he had hours to thoroughly thing his lecture/rant through. It was only time before he snapped.

"Chloe," he sighed. When he looked at me I felt my chest tighten and my heart start to race, the look in his eyes will haunt me forever. "I was terrified not pissed. I know I've pushed you aside and became a complete asshole towards you. But the longer we are out here the more likely we won't be found… we have to learn to coexist."

"Fine."

"Alright." He nodded and went back to eating his food silently, after awhile I couldn't stand it anymore.

"What was it like begin adopted? When I say that I mean, was it hard to feel like you belonged in that family when you weren't… uh born into it." I asked. I was surprised when he gave me a small smile, it was so tiny that I almost missed it.

"Tori was pretty tough to get through to, but Simon and I were good friends from day one and that quickly formed into a tight bond. Which I think pissed Tori off even more than me just being there. I don't remember much of the adoption process, but I never felt like an outside of my family."

"What was it like growing up with siblings?"

"Hectic, there was a lot of arguing and feuds that I needed up in the middle of somehow. I remember this one time Tori thought it would be a good idea to try to eliminate me from the family." He chuckled and shook his head.

"What?"

"She pushed me off the roof when we were younger, it was over something about Simon wanting to be my partner instead of hers." He waved his hand aside as if his sister trying to kill him was a normal occurrence.

"That's messed up!"

"Tori is sick, her brain doesn't function like ours. She has multiple personality disorder, off her meds she is a loose cannon… she'd do something and then the next day completely forget about it." I thought back to that time in the woods when she kept saying Derek and I were going to get together…. was that one of her episodes?

"She probably did try to kill you when she gave you those berries, but what did you expect Simon and I to do? She was off her meds, we looked after her more closely after that." We fell into an awkward silence, I felt horrible for feeling anger towards Tori even though she was missing, but I mean, she tried to _kill_ me!

"So why did you want to become a doctor? I mean, I was told that you put school before family."

"I'm guess Tori told you that?"

"My sources are classified."

"I never planned on graduating early, I was just too far ahead to be challenged mentally in high school. So I started college courses and when I turned sixteen I enrolled into NYU, got in, and graduated from that at eighteen. I would be done my asters degree by now if we weren't stuck here." He sighed and pushed his hair out of his face, he avoided looking at me and stared intensely into the fire.

"Why did you rush it though? Isn't college suppose to be where you find your life long friends and find who you really are?"

"Sure, if you're into all that cheesy crap. I got in some trouble my sophomore year in high school and after that I just tried to make my dads life easier by just sticking to school. I never realized I was pushing them away until I brought Sam home…" He shuddered. I'm not sure if it was because he was going to marry Sam or the reaction his family had of her. i wasn't going to be the one to ask.

"What would you do with your degree?"

"I wanted to work in a lab, do experiments—it's kinda like school but you get paid to do shit." I watched the corner of his lips twist up in a half smile, his canine teeth catching the light from the fire. "I could become a professor but I'm not much of a people person."

"Clearly."

"Thanks," he grumbled as he stood up and stretched, his worn out shirt riding up showing his happy trail. I stood up and headed towards my tent, even though I had just woken up from my long ass nap, I still felt exhausted.

"Night." I mumbled and quickly ducked in. Hopefully the rest of the night will give me uneventful dreams.

"Cheer up, sleepy Jean," I mumbled as I weaved in another white flower into the branch braid I had just made, it would be a nice decoration for my tent. As much as I hate to admit it, Derek was right. We've been here for almost four months and we haven't seen one sign of someone looking for us, they probably stopped the search party two weeks after the crash. There was nothing to do that we already haven't done.

There was not much to do on the island as it is, Ive already gone swimming twice and went hiking up to the cliff. It got boring real fast, what I would do to just have a journal with me. Do you know how many stories I could have written by now? A lot.

"Damn it!" I jumped and looked out into the ocean, Derek was wadding out of the water dripping wet. I couldn't help but laugh, once again a fish got the best of him.

"What happened?" I tried to stifle a laugh, but was unsuccessful.

"I slipped after I caught the damn fish and accidentally let it go!" He plopped down on one of the logs beside me and peeled off his shirt. I looked away and poured my attention onto the braid, I'm not sure why, I've seen Derek shirtless before.

"What are we going to do for dinner then?" I asked as I tied another flower onto a branch.

"Well, hopefully we have some squirrels in one of the traps or it's gonna be a fruit night." He wrung out the excess water of his shirt and then hung it up on a branch above the fire. "I'll be back," he left and I watched until he disappeared into the woods.

He wasn't gone long before he came back with three dead squirrels, and a bowl full of fruit. As much as I hated killing innocent animals, I was tired of eating berries and plants, I needed some sort of meat and this was the closest thing I was going to get right now.

As Derek skinned the meat I went for a walk on the beach, it was nice during the sunset plus, I hated the skinning part. In the distance I spotted a tiny black creature making its way to the water, I instantly froze when I realized what it was. The baby turtles! I couldn't help it but I let out a girly squeal and ran towards the nest, has it really been that long?

"Chloe?" Derek boomed from around the rocks, his face looked panic stricken, but I was too excited about the eggs hatching.

"The babies! They're here!" I pointed to the hole in the ground and smiled, his response was to just roll his eyes and turn back around. "Derek! C'mon, it's once in a lifetime experience!" I ran back to him to try and catch up.

"Then how come you're seeing it again?"

"I don't know, maybe because I almost died twice? Come watch it with me, please!"

"I have to get the food prepared, unless you just—"

"The dead squirrels will be there when it's done, please watch with me? Simon would have if he was still here, I don't want to do it alone!" I met his eyes and tried my best at the whole puppy dog eye shindig, I'm not sure if it worked or not, his face was emotionless.

"Fine." He grunted after a while, I smiled and took his arm and lead him towards the hole in the ground. We were just in time to see the rest of the turtles coming out of their shells and making it to the sandy surface. I walked along the path with the turtles and followed them until the all reached the water, Derek stood and observed.

I slowly made my way back to the shore, it wasn't the same as last time, I stopped next to Derek and looked back at the disappearing turtles. A part of me felt saddened by what was happening, Simon should have been here with us. He loved it last time. I missed both of them so much and I never thought I would ever feel that way to someone outside my family.

"I'm pretty sure they're fine," Derek whispered.

"The turtles? Yeah, they're born to do this stuff." I looked up at the darkening sky and tried to force the tears back.

"No, I meant Tori and Simon, they're safe."

"You're horrible at lying."

"Well it's a good thing I never went to law school." I chuckled and followed him back to the fire. In a way I guess that was my goodbye to Simon, as much as I hate to think about it that way. I want to believe that they're safe and sound and looking for us, but it was impractical. They had no idea where the island was and there's also a chance of them not surviving that long on that tiny raft.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own DP**

* * *

 **Previously….**

 _"No, I meant Tori and Simon they're safe."_

 _"You're horrible at lying."_

 _"Well, it's a good thing I never went to law school." I chuckled and followed him back to the fire. In a way I guess that was my goodbye to Simon, as much as I hate to think about it that way. I want to believe that they're safe and sound and looking for us, but it was impractical. They had no idea where the island was and there's also a chance of them not surviving that long on that tiny raft._

* * *

 **22 Weeks**

"Okay, now hold it steady and try to predict where the fish is going to swim, you have to be fast!" Derek handed me the handmade spear stick and watched as I tried to process what he wanted me to do. When Derek asked me if I wanted to learn how to fish I thought for some reason something less brutal. This felt odd, the whole objective of this was to literally stab something to death.

"Chloe?"

"Yeah?" I looked up at him and all of a sudden my throat got tight, why was he teaching me how to fish? That was his job! Was he trying to tell me he was leaving? I can't survive on this island all alone, I'll go crazy for sure!

"What's wrong?"

"I—I.." I didn't know how to word what I was feeling, I was scared. What if something did happen to Derek? "Are you planning on leaving or something? Why do I have to know this stuff? This is your job and mine is to collect berries and wood—"

"I'm not planning on going anywhere, but it is possible that I could get hurt and you might need to get food. I'm teaching you now so you don't have to depend on me!" I didn't want to even think about what I would do if he got hurt or worse if he died. "Chloe, you'll be fine. Now, here," he stood behind me and placed his hands on mine, they were warm and covered mine completely. He taught me the correct way to bring down the stick for more reasons than one. He didn't want me to accidentally stab myself and he didn't want me to not stab hard enough that the fish got away. He took his hands away and let me try it by myself, I could feel him staring at me and it made me, even more, self-conscious than before. Was I holding the stick wrong? Would I actually be able to kill it?

After my third failed attempt my eyes caught something silver and long at my feet and I fell silent. The fish was swimming too close to me to actually stab it without getting hurt in the process. I backed up as slowly as I could without scaring the fish away and then pounced. When I opened my eyes I noticed that the water had a slight red tint, I wiggled my toes to make sure I didn't stab anything—of mine, good. I pulled the stick-up and saw the poor, shocked fish at the other end.

"Okay, now what?" I screeched towards Derek, showing him the fish. He took the stick from me and walked back to the fire pit. I quickly followed behind as fast as I could while avoiding the sharp rocks at the bottom.

"Now, we have to skin it and take the bones out," he placed the fish on a log and took out his shiv.

"No, no, no, I don't want to do this!" I quickly turned my back to him and covered my ears, I didn't want to hear anything. Derek stepped in front of me and gently took my hands off of my ears, I looked anywhere but at him.

"You're going to have to learn to do stuff you don't want to in order to survive," he grumbled.

"I can survive off of fruit and kale…"

"Well, I can't and I would at least feel better knowing that you at least know how to do this. Plus, there are more animals out there that we can hunt, and I'm going to teach you how." His hand grabbed onto my chin and forced me to look into his eyes, I glared back at him. He dropped his hand and shoved them into his pockets.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because out here anything can happen and you need to be prepared!" He took my arm and brought me to the log and pointed to the dead fish. "Stop acting like a spoiled brat and do your part of this!"

"I'm not— I've done my part! Stop acting like I just sit on my ass and wait for you to do everything for me!"

"Chloe, I'm teaching you how to help out more often, picking berries and wood is not going to help you in the long run!" We glared at one another for who knows how long, he just knows how to piss me off. I do help around here, just because I don't kill anything doesn't mean I'm not putting my share of work into it.

What was the use of arguing with him? In his mind he is and will always be right, he sees everything logically and ignores any kind of emotion. Emotions are invalid and temporary—according to him. I had no idea why I was being stubborn, why was I dragging my feet when he was trying to teach me? Maybe, it just made it seem like we were never going to get off this fucking island! It's been five months. Not one sign.

"Fine… but I'm not promising I'll do this crap on my own!" I huffed and sat down beside the poor dead fish. He was probably living his best life and then my greedy ass swept in and took it. Selfish humans, that's what we are.

"I'm going to just show you because you'll probably fuck up and then ruin dinner."

"Gee, thanks for the confidence!" I grumbled and placed my chin onto my hand and watched as he laid the fish out on a palm tree leaf. He swiftly cut off the head and then the tail and discarded them to the side.

"Start at the head end and run the knife along the backbone," he did as he said and I tried my best to hold back the gags. "Cut around the ribs and spirit the halves," he split the fish in half and separated the parts.

"Place with the skin side down," he flipped the fish over and then pointed his shiv at the tail. "Run the knife slowly along the fish, slowly," he stopped what he was doing and gave me a dirty look.

"Okay!"

"Just making sure… keep the blade angled slightly downward, firmly gripping the skin as you cut." When he was done, he cut the halves into smaller parts and stuck them on sticks. "Now, you just have to flip them every three minutes until they're cooked, timing will obviously be a hit and miss."

I intently watched Derek work. His usual strong facial expression was softened, his lips weren't set in a disappointed line and the way the light was hitting them, they looked so soft. His long nose stood broadly at the center of his face, and when he turned to the side he looked… hauntingly beautiful. He must have felt me staring at him because before I knew it he was staring back.

"What?" He asked.

"I-I was just admiring," I looked past him, just now noticing the sunset, I looked back at Derek and smiled. "I was admiring the sunset, you never really notice it in the city." He raised a dark brow and then looked over his shoulder. The thing with Derek was he never took the time to 'stop and smell the roses,' he had a schedule to keep.

"Sure," He grunted, turned back to the fish and placed them in separate coconut bowls. I sprinkled some crushed kale onto my fish and picked at the berries on the bottom so they wouldn't be warm. I would be fooling myself if I excepted Derek to sit and talk to me about what he thought was pretty or breathtaking… So instead we ate in silence.

* * *

The next two weeks have been hell and not just for me either, all those poor animals out there knew that we were on the prowl for more meat. Derek refused to let me take a break from hunting, he declared that I needed to learn everything he does in case anything happened to him. In my whole honest opinion, if he kept on dragging me on these hunting fiascos, I'd be the one ending up killing him!

My body was sore from climbing trees, setting up traps, and smashing yucca plants to make soap. I was tired of overthinking that every squeak in the night was a poor squirrel caught in our traps.

The most traumatic part of the hunting would have to be the skinning and gutting. The smell and the warmth that comes from inside the animals is not pleasant. The blood was also a negative for me, it got everywhere and again the smell was frankly disgusting.

I groaned as I peeled away my sweat-soaked shirt, I had been running around the goddamn forest with Derek trying to catch a rogue pig. He or she had gotten trapped in one of our makeshift nets and instead of just laying there and accepting death, it fought back. It ran through the campsite, dragging a bunch of shit along with it. My tent nearly collapsed with me still in it, and the pig just kept on squealing.

I tried to help it but when it just kept charging at me, I was ready for it to die. Those creatures are just pure evil! I gave up eventually and Derek released me from hunting duty to clean up. I have yet to retrieve some kind of food without getting injured in some kind of way, this time I scratched the shit out of my left side. I lightly grazed my fingers over the scratches and winced, it kind of felt like a rug burn—probably from those shitty nets.

I kicked off my shorts and jumped in, getting an automatic cold rush. There was a slight sting around my newly— uninvited— injuries, but I did my best to ignore it. I sunk until my butt hit the bottom of the rocks and my lungs were begging for air. I sprang back up onto the surface quickly gasping for air and stretching out like a starfish. I slowly battled around the pond, just relaxing and spacing out.

What would life be like if the plane didn't crash? Would Simon propose to Liz at the wedding or after? Would the wedding even happen? I mean, Liz did drop a huge bombshell on Derek on the way to the wedding itself! Would Derek confront Sam about the cheating? Derek didn't seem like the type of person to hold things in, if something bothered him then you would know. I want to know why the plane went down in the first place! If the weather was so bad then they should have just canceled the whole flight in general. We all would be safe… and alive.

I shook my head and snapped out of my depressing daze. I have to stop thinking like that, shit happens in life and sometimes you just have to learn to roll with the punches. Get back up on your feet and keep moving on. I was starting to waddle out of the water when I heard the familiar heart-wrenching squeal from that horrid pig. My eyes scanned the trees trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. The cold air whipped around me making me shiver as I tried to see, the squealing seemed to stop, which could be good and bad.

I slowly walked over my clothes, maybe if I was slow enough the pig wouldn't see or hear me. Hopefully… I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Every fiber in my body was screaming for me to run, but I knew it would only make it obvious that I was here.

I bent down and my fingers scarcely grasping my shirt when I heard the squeal again, but much closer. When I turned I barely had enough time to move out of the way of the charging hog towards me. My foot slipped and I fell face first in the space between the rocks, my side scraping hard on the way down. I didn't have time to wallow in pain as the hog was turning around— still charging at me! I quickly got up and ran towards the forest, so much for Derek's hunting skills.

You see what I mean? Animals hate me already why the hell would I want to try and kill them! I'm clearly going to fail at it and it'll just fuel their hatred towards me and now I'm going to die! From a fucking pig!

I tried ducking behind trees and backtracking back to the pond, but this animal was smarter than I realized. I could not lose its trail no matter what I did! When a stitch began forming on my right side I knew I was in for it, I can't even outrun a pig. How sad is that! I pushed my aching legs forward, feeling my feet slap against the hard ground desperately trying to get me to safety. Why does this shit always happen to me?

Just as I round the corner of the path I face planted into something warm and sweaty. I screamed as I felt myself falling once again, at this rate the damn pig could leisurely walk its way over to me and trample me to death. When my face didn't smash into the dirt I opened my eyes, green ones stared back at me.

It was as if everything was in slow motion, I could see Derek's lips moving but the only thing I could hear was a rushing sound—the kind you hear when you stick your head out of a moving car window. When I felt a pair of strong, warm hands grab onto my injured bicep I snapped out of whatever daze I had been in. The squealing pig, the sound of Derek's concerned voice and the waves all came rushing back.

"Chloe?" I looked down at his eyes and felt safe and warm, he would protect me. The pig couldn't hurt him, Derek was tall and strong the pig was… the pig!

"T-t-the—" I looked around the nearby woods but couldn't see the stupid jackass anywhere and come to think of it, the squeals had stopped altogether. "The pig was chasing me! I was swimming and it f-found me, I tried to get away but man, those things sure do have a pair of legs on them! I t-thought I was a goner!" I gushed and tried to catch my breath. I wrapped my arms around my body as a blast of cold air whipped by, why the hell was I so cold?

I looked down and felt as if my heart completely stopped beating. I was still naked, completely butt ass naked, on top of Derek. I wanted to hide and curl into a ball, I'd gratefully die right now than have to deal with this embarrassment. Derek thought didn't seem fazed by it, he just looked at me with great concern. Why?

"Are you hurt?"

"N-not that I know of," I stammered and tried to think of a way to get off of him without him seeing everything. Derek sniffed and then signed, when I looked back at him he was now inches from my face.

"I smell blood, you're bleeding somewhere," he looked down at me and attempted to inspect me, but I felt odd. He hands gently prodded their way around my neck and shoulders, whenever his fingertips would touch my skin a small shiver would fly throughout my body.

"Chloe! Would you stop moving! I'm just seeing if you are hurt, I'm not trying to cop a feel!"

"I'm fine, Derek! I don't need— Ow!" I gasped as his fingers grazed my left side, he pulled back his hand, now covered in blood.

"We have to wash this out now, who knows what got in there, especially if the pig got near you. For all, we know it could have rabies!" Derek said trying to get a better look at the injury, but I wasn't letting him.

"But you wanted to eat the damn thing!" I turned away from his hands and glared at him. He made no sense, why would we eat something that could have rabies?

"Eating it is completely different if you actually cook the meat the right way!"

"Okay, Mr. know-it-all, how would you know the meat is thoroughly cooked? I mean with fish and squirrels it is kind of easy. Their meat is thinner and shit, but a hog has a ton of fat and gross crap inside of it…"

"Stop stalling. I have to look at your cut whether you like it or not!"

"No, you don't! You want to look at it, it's completely different."

"Dammit, Chloe! Why do you have to fight me on every single thing! You're bleeding out and yet, you won't take the help I am trying to give you!" Derek huffed out a long breath and looked away. But not before I saw the fear in his eyes, it was quick but not quick enough.

Then it hit me. He was just as scared of losing me as I was to losing him. We both needed each other on this island to survive. He wanted me safe for his sake too, to have someone to talk to or just know that he wasn't in this shit hole alone.

"Fine," I huffed and relaxed, well I mean as much as I could with being completely naked near a guy. He gently pushed my arm away from the injury, his fingers leaving a small trail of goosebumps as he inspected. I never realized how deprived my body had become for a simple human touch until now… it was yearning for more. I didn't want to feel alone anymore.

When he took his hand away I felt cold all over, I looked up at Derek and saw something in his green eyes, something other than anger, but just like the fear it quickly vanished. I wanted to know more, I wanted him to stop being so standoffish with me!

"It's not deep, thank god, but you should still go and clean it…"

"Can you just stand guard when I clean it? In case the thing comes back." I whispered I wasn't even sure he heard it until I got a quick both walked back to the pond, in silence, him in the front so he wouldn't see anything else of me.

"I'll stay here and stand guard," I opened my mouth to protest but he put his hand up to stop me. "I'll have my back to you, don't worry." He walked to the rocks and proceeded to turn around. That wasn't what I wanted to say… I sighed and walked back into the cool water. Talk about déjà vu.

This time I walked over to the waterfall, making sure Derek was still there every five-seconds. I ducked behind the water and sunk down until my head was the only thing above water. I couldn't hear anything other than the roaring of the waterfall, so even if the little shit head did come back, I wouldn't know. I hoped to god that Derek would track it down before nightfall, I did not want to have to worry about it trampling through my tent while I was sleeping.

I gritted my teeth together as hard as I could as I scrubbed the open wound with our homemade yucca soap. It left a slight tingling sensation, not even close to the way my body reacted to Derek's touch. Even thinking about it now set my whole body on fire, in all honesty, I was confused about it. I never had this reaction before when he touched me, never felt this way ever in general!

It was confusing… what does this mean? What was happening to me? I peaked around the corner of the waterfall and silently watched Derek. His back was still to me, but his head was turned to the side.

HIs hair nearly reached his shoulders now, his strong jawline had become hidden by the growing had on his face, there were no more bald patches but it was far from even. It's not like we had the necessities to groom ourselves. Who knew what I looked like, from what I could see my leg hair was the longest I have ever let it get, as was my armpits.

I snapped out of my daze and ducked under the water, what was I thinking! Derek was obnoxious, manipulative and plain out rude! Whatever this thing had to be a phase, you know? Once we get off this island I'll look back on these moments and want to smack myself, I just used to only seeing Derek that my body… longed for him? Kinda like Stockholm syndrome… minus the kidnapping and shit. Yeah, that has to be it.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so some parts of the reading might sound like I'm anti-meat eaters, but that's not the case. I personally feel like Chloe would not enjoy any part of hunting… anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm sorry it's taking so long to update each chapter, I'm doing my best!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own DP**

 **A/N: Okay, so I tried something different… I hope you guys like it.**

 **P.S. Ignore the crappy grammar when I write it's usually after work/school (which is late) and I try to catch the ones I can see, but some do slip by.**

* * *

 _Previously…_

 _I snapped out of my daze and ducked under the water, what was I thinking! Derek was obnoxious, manipulative and plain out rude! Whatever this thing was, it had to be a phase, you know? Once we get off this island I'll look back on these moments and want to smack myself, I 'm just so used to only seeing Derek, that my body… longed for him? Kinda like Stockholm syndrome… minus the kidnapping and shit. Yeah, that has to be it._

* * *

 _Week 30_

Lauren POV

I had just finished the dishes when the front door buzzed, I glanced at the clock and frowned, it was nearly ten. Who would show up so late? Instantly my heart leaped into my throat, could it be Chloe? I grabbed a hand cloth and quickly dried my hands as I jogged to the front of the house.

I glanced into the peephole, the sight causing my heart to race for a whole different reason. What was he doing here? A big part of me knew Chloe was not behind the door, but what kind of aunt would I be if I stopped hoping? I grumbled and took a moment to gain composure before swinging the door open.

"Jimmy," I said trying to stifle the smile that started to creep up. I quickly glanced into his blue eyes and felt the butterflies start up again. I will admit it, I have never been so unprofessional in my life, but something about this guy made me reckless… and it's perfectly normal to just blame it on the grief.

"Dr. Fellows," he said curtly. I was taken aback by his attitude and stepped aside to allow him in. I wrapped my sweater around me tighter, suddenly feeling exposed.

"What can I do for you?" I asked as I headed toward the living room, not waiting to see if he was following.

"I'm here to inform you that I have to close the case."

"What? Why? Did Steve call it off?"

"No," he looked around the room and a ghost of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. I blushed and tucked away a stray piece of hair, he didn't have to say anything but I knew what he was thinking.

About a month ago I ran into him at a bar and I had one too many shots, he drove me home. When we pulled up beside my house I insisted he come inside with me, and that is where I crossed the line. I kissed him and things went too far, but it didn't stop there like it should have. It's been once a week lately and I don't know how to feel about it, why am I so drawn to him?

"Care to sit?" he asked as he took a seat in the recliner. It was like deja vu, except he was fully clothed this time. I shook my head quickly and sat down in the love seat across from him.

"I originally wanted to talk to Steve about this, but I can't get ahold of him," he trailed off and picked at the armrest. Chloe uses to do the same when she was nervous.

"He's in Berlin right now, tying up some loose ends… at least that's what he told me," I mumbled and pushed away from the same piece of hair.

"Right, I came here to tell you to have no more leads, I can't possibly do anything more than I already have." I looked down at my pant leg and took a deep breath, how was this possible? No one just disappears out of thin air! "There was another passenger that had family off the plane," he took out a tiny notebook and flipped through a couple pages, my temper started to boil.

"Elizabeth Delaney, twenty-three, family located in Southern New York," he sighed and flipped the notebook shut. "I'm all out of leads, it would be a waste of time and money for me to continue this investigation." He leaned forward and lightly touched my knee, his blue eyes sparkling in the light.

"Lauren, I think its time to consider putting Chloe to rest…" I looked up sharply and pushed his hand away, how could he suggest such a thing?

"You promised us you'd find her!" I bellowed and stood up, I couldn't stay in one place.

"I promised to do my best!" He said calmly and stepped towards me. "Lauren, it's been six months, I can't keep looking for something-" I grabbed the closest thing to me—a picture frame—and threw it. Once it left my fingers I knew I was going to regret it. It was as if time was in slow motion and all I could do was watch, the picture frame hit him square in the face and then fell towards the floor. I was by his side before the picture frame even hit the hardwood floor, the sound of glass shattering didn't even register.

"What the fuck, Lauren!" He groaned and clutched his bleeding nose, I grumbled an apology as we headed toward the guest bathroom. I sat him down on the toilet and turned to the medicine cabinet, but for some reason, my eyes wouldn't focus. I looked down at my bloodied hands, and I couldn't move. I was dumbfounded really. I never let my emotions get the best of me, I felt as if I lost control of my own body!

I took a deep breath and turned the water on, washed the blood off my hands and grabbed a clean face cloth. I wrung out the excess water and crouched in front of Jimmy. He whined as I gently wiped away the blood and pushed my hand away, I sighed and placed the cloth in his hand. I watched as he stood and walked over to the sink, I took his place on the toilet and fiddled with my shirt. My mind was racing over what just happened and normally a person would apologize and beg for forgiveness, but not I. I was still pissed.

"Chloe isn't just something for you to find," I gritted my teeth and looked up at him. "She is my sisters baby, and when Jenny died… I promised I would take care of her! She's been through so much already, why the hell did she go?" My vision became impaired by the tears and Jimmy's silhouette became a blob of different colors, as if I was looking out a car window on a rainy night

I felt his hands around me, which was like a crack in a dam, all my frustration, and sadness that I have been holding in for the past six months came pouring out. Jimmy didn't do say anything, he just held me and it was everything I needed.

* * *

"We should tell Steve," I whispered into Jimmy's bare chest, I felt the laughter bubble in his chest before I heard it. "Why is that funny?" I sat up on my elbows and glared at him in the darkness.

"In all honesty, I'm scared of what he will try and throw at me," I giggled and slapped him lightly on the arm.

"I already apologized! Plus, it's not broken so quit the bellyaching!" He sat up and met my lips for a quick kiss before pushing the blankets off of him. I knew it needed to be done, but I wasn't ready just yet. I don't know what would be worse, Steve causing a scene or calmly agreeing with Jimmy. He put off work as much as he could but when his clients started threatening to drop out of their deals… well, Steve had to do something.

"Lauren?" I looked up at Jimmy as he pulled his leg through his pants, his face full of concern. "Are you okay?"

"No, but he has to know…" I whispered, suddenly freezing, I grabbed my robe and tightly wrapped it around my body. Jimmy stood there with only his pants on and gave me a hard look, eventually, he nodded and proceeded to get dressed. I took out my laptop and walked over to my desk, I tried my best to make myself look like I had not just rolled around in bed for the past two hours.

It was almost two in the morning here, so it'd almost be eight in Berlin, Steve should be awake by now. I flicked on the lamp beside me and with one last look at Jimmy— to make sure he was fully dressed— I hit call.

The laptop chimed as we waited for Steve to answer, the longer it took the more nervous I got. What would he say? How will he react? How will I react? I pulled the robed even tighter than it already was and took a deep breath, it had to be done.

"Lauren?" I jumped at the sound of Steve's voice coming from the screen, it was black, he either had his camera covered or the lights were off.

"Steve? Why can't I see you?"

"What are you— Oh! I go it," there was a ruffled around and soon Steve's face was on the screen. "What are you doing up so late?"

"I called t talk to you about something… Well, we have to talk to you," Jimmy walked up beside me and waved into the camera.

"Jimmy? What are you two doing together this late at night?"

"That's what we called you for," Jimmy said as he sat down beside me. My nerves were all over the place, one-second my heart would be racing and my hands clammy and the next I'd feel as if I was about to vomit. I took another deep breath and tried to calm down, something inside me was saying this was a bad idea.

"What do you mean you have to call off the investigation? Chloe is still missing!" Steve roared, his face turning as red as a tomato.

"I know that! I've done everything I can do, Steve!"

"Pfft, all I've seen you do was Lauren! I paid you to find my daughter, and you haven't!"

"Steven!" I snapped. So many thoughts raced through my mind, was it that obvious that we hooked up? How could he tell? This was about Chloe and me, once again, made it about me.

"Where else could I have looked? The family that wasn't on the plane weren't much help, they didn't even know their daughter was going to San Juan. The cops have no idea where the plane crashed, they have no idea if it was even on the right route! For all, I know that plane could be anywhere in the North Atlantic ocean!" Steve looked away and rubbed his eyes before letting out a long sigh.

"What about you Lauren? You agree with your boyfriend?" Steve snapped. I took a moment to think about what I was going to say, I didn't want to be harsh or take my anger out on him.

"I don't want to stop hoping she's somewhere out there, but if he's done everything he is capable of doing then maybe we should put her to rest."

"I can't just give up on her like that, and frankly Lauren, I thought you'd be the one to refuse giving up this easily!"

"I'm not—" I shouted but he already needs the call before I could even defend myself. I knew it was a bad idea, I should have listened to my gut.

"Lauren," Jimmy whispered and pulled me into a side hug and planted a soft kiss on my forehead. I wanted the comfort, but at that moment I was feeling tremendously guilty. Was I really going to give up on Chloe that easily? I always thought that if she was dead my body would know, I would feel her around me and I don't… she has to still be alive. I looked out the window and sighed, when did I ever start caring what Steve thought of me? But he was right.

"What are you thinking?" Jimmy asked.

"She's out there somewhere, I just know it. For all we know she needs help, a plane just doesn't disappear! If you don't want to continue looking for her, I will find someone who will." I looked over at Jimmy and watched his face change as he thought through everything, his silence was starting to make me nervous. Just when I was about to accept the fact that he wasn't going to help me anymore, he stood up and knelt in front of me. He gave my hand a squeeze and his lips gently grazed mine before pulling away and smiling.

"So where should we start?"

* * *

Week 31

DPOV

Rainy days suck. I grumbled as yet another raindrop leaked through the tent insulation—a term that I would use lightly— and landed the wood I was trying to save. It was going to be cold after the sun went down and the rain hopefully stopped, and there's no better way to keep warm than a fire. I threw the blue tarp over the logs and did my best to tie the strings back together.

"Derek," Chloe sang out, I froze to make sure I was actually hearing her and not imagining it. "Derek!" She sang out again, I turned to the opening of the tent and pulled back the curtain.

"What?"I yelled out over the rain, she came into view, dancing from puddle to puddle. Her long strawberry blonde hair swayed behind her like a cape, she looked more mature than when I first met her—most likely from the stress.

"Come out!" She yelled, snapping me out of my daydream.

"Why would I do that?"

"To have fun, duh!"

"I don't feel like getting sick." She stopped in her tracks and put her hands on her hips, her eyebrow raised and her mouth set in a small pout.

"Rain won't kill you, Derek!" I looked up at the sky, still dark and gloomy, the cloud looked as if they were never going to stop raining.

"It doesn't rain here often, who knows what's in the trees and now raining onto you…" I gave her a quick look over and gave her my best-disgusted face and closed the curtains. There's not much to do around here and I was getting antsy, so the next best thing to do would be the mess with Chloe. Kind of a dick thing to do, but who's going to find out? We are most likely going to die on this island.

I sat down on one side of the tent and started sharpening one end of a stick, the spear stick that I have been using for the past couple months was on its last leg. I smiled to myself as Chloe came barging in, a glare already set in place.

"Stop fucking with my head!" She yelled, wagging her finger at me. She was cute when she was mad, the way her nose scrunched up and how her eyes always looked a shade darker.

"I'm not fucking with anything," I stood up and walked towards her, noticing the way she held herself when I was around, she was trying to show me she wasn't intimidated.

"I mean, think about it, we've been here what? Six months? It's only rained one other time, now think about all the animal shit and bacteria in those trees," I stopped when I was a couple inches from her and shoved my hands into my pockets. "Which is now raining onto everything," I looked down and watched as she looked intently outside, absently wiping away the raindrop that was falling into her eyes.

I watched as she processed the information I just gave her, chewing on her bottom lip while staring out at the stormy beach. This past couple of weeks I've noticed tiny things about Chloe that if we weren't stranded I never would have noticed them. For starters; she hates the dark. There have been many nights where I'll find her sleeping by the fire instead of her tent. I originally thought it was because she was cold, so I gave her the other half of the tarp, but she denied needing it.

Sometimes I'll take a quick peek at her and she's got one eye closed and her hands in front of her face, kind of like she's taking a picture. She's only caught me looking once, and she stuttered over her explanation. The most important observation would probably be the fact that she bites her bottom lip when she's thinking up her argument. I tried to stifle the laugh I felt bubbling up in my chest, but it was no use.

"It's not funny, Derek!" She slapped my arm and glared.

"I'm not laughing," I gave her a serious face, along with my hands up in surrender before walking back to my corner. I zoned out while I sharpened the stick, my thoughts were mainly on Simon and Tori. I desperately wanted to know what happened to them, but what was I supposed to do? The raft was long gone—they probably took it. If that scenario was right then why didn't they wait for me?

I blew off the tip and inspected my handy work, it was far from done, but coming along just fine. I looked up from my work and nearly jumped out of my skin, Chloe still stood in the corner, her back to me.

"What are you still doing here?" I asked. She jumped and looked back at me, clearly, she forgot about me being here too.

"W-waiting for it to stop raining."

"You know you can do that in your own tent."

"I'm not going back out into the rain," she took in a deep breath and gave me a cold smile. "Unless you're trying to tell me you were just talking complete bullshit." She glared at me, daring me to fuck up.

"Of course not!"

"Then I'm staying here." She scooted farther in and made herself comfortable, sprawling out across half of my so-called bed— just a thick pile of palm tree leaves and half of the tarp.

"Fine, but if you annoy me once I'm kicking you out." She stuck out her tongue and rolled her back to me. This rainstorm better pass quickly or I'm going to go insane.

* * *

I woke to an empty tent with the sunlight shining its way through the curtain, I don't even remember passing out. The raining had stopped which meant Chloe was already gone, probably off exploring for seashells. Like I said earlier, there's not much to do here.

I stepped out of the tent and squinted at my surroundings, I was still disorientated from my dream to really understand where I was. It was like this every morning, I'd have a vivid dream of being home and be startled back to this reality. I walked past the fire pit and gave a quick look back to the shore, once I saw her strawberry head pop up I relaxed and walked into the woods.

On my way to my bathing spot, I decided to take a quick detour towards the squirrel traps. It felt a lot cooler, thanks to the rain, but still as humid as ever, if my math was correct then it should be around mid-September right now. Everything back home would be changing, the air would be colder and smell like leaves— something I didn't know I would miss.

I smiled to myself as I picked up the traps, each of them occupied by the dead squirrels. Chloe would be upset but after a couple of bites she should feel a lot better, living on just berries was not fulfilling. I ran the squirrels back to the camp and started the fire, the sun would be set in a half hour, and Chloe hated the dark. I placed the squirrels by the fire, they could be skinned and prepared after my—desperately needed— swim.

I jogged to the watering hole and stripped out of my shirt and as I was unbuttoning my shorts I heard a familiar scream. I wanted to ignore it, it was Chloe being Chloe, meaning she screamed at everything. She probably found the dead squirrels or stepped on a sharp rock, she's overdramatic. I shook my head and walked to the large palm tree and proceeded to relieve myself.

"Derek!" Chloe shouted, she was closer than I anticipated. I quickly made myself decent and ran towards her voice. It didn't take me long to find her, she was on all fours puking up whatever was in her stomach.

"Chloe?" I slowly made my way to her, a part of me expected her to turn around with half of her face melted off. I've been hanging around Chloe and her overactive imagination too much.

"T-t-the beach, it's j-just," she hurled once more and let out a long sob, falling back onto her knees.

"Just show me," I tried to take her hand but she pulled away.

"No, I'm not going back over there!"

"Okay, what am I looking for then?"

"Dead bodies," She whispered.

* * *

My first thought was Tori and Simon's, but it wasn't, and I had no time to feel relieved or shocked. Three purple, bloated bodies washed ashore, what I could tell from the tattered clothing, was they were from the plane. What don't I understand is why are they washing up now? Two of them were wearing flight attendant outfits, both looking like they were in their late thirties and the other looked like a twenty-year-old passenger.

The last body was putting me on edge, something about him made every part of my body burst out in goosebumps. I didn't waste any time, I went deep into the woods and started digging. I left Chloe by the fire and told her to watch the food, it'd give her something to do and also keep her out of the way.

Before I put the bodies in the grave I had to dig, I went through all their pockets and took anything that could be of use. One guy had a Zippo lighter, the other a tiny pocket knife. When I reached the last one my stomach dropped and my heart started to race uncontrollably. He looked so familiar, but for some reason, I can't pinpoint where I remember him from. I came up with nothing from my quick search, not even a form of identification. Who the hell was this guy?

I huffed and pushed him into the hole along with the other guys—it's not like he was going to tell me himself. The hole really wasn't that big, but I did the best I could with everything I had… which was nothing. I kicked in the dirt and did my best to make it look like bodies had not been buried there.

"D-Derek?" Chloe called out. I should have known she wouldn't listen to me, I didn't want her to know where the bodies were, for more reason than one. I could hear her trying to make her way to me, but I was off the path, and knowing her she'd trip and end up hurting herself.

I ran out to the path nearly taking Chloe down in the process, I steadied her quickly and directed her back to the camp. I'd have to move some big rocks over the grave so animals couldn't get to them… at least not as easily.

Just from glancing at Chloe I could tell she had been crying, her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and her cheeks sported long tear stains. I felt for her, I wanted to take her pain away, which is out of character for me. I'm going crazy.

* * *

Shortly after dinner Chloe retired to her tent, she barely touched her food, but could you really blame her? I desperately wished Simone was still here, he'd know what to say or do to help her get through this. There was not a single bone in my body capable of comforting someone.

Feeling restless I went back to where the bodies were found, there had to be a reason as to why the bodies were here now. I knew I wasn't going to get my answers from here, but I needed to do something! I stepped onto a rock and looked down to the shore, the waves were gently crashing against the rocks. As they retreated something red caught my eye, it was hidden under one of the larger rocks, probably why I didn't see it earlier.

I carefully scaled the rocks and peeked into the abyss and from what I could tell from my location it looked like a bag. It could have possibly washed up along with the bodies or long before them… I don't usually go down to the shore so I would have no idea when this arrived.

I took all the precautions one should take before grabbing an unattended bag, I felt foolish but I wasn't risking anything, something about the bodies was setting me off. It could just be the fact that they were actually dead people and who knows how long Chloe and I have until we—

No! I will not go down that rabbit hole! Of course, Chloe and I were going to die, eventually, but I refused to die on this island! I grabbed the bag and raced back to the camp, hopefully, it contained materials useful for our time here, if not we could always use the bag for storage.

I added a couple more logs to the fire and sat down by my tent opening. The way our shelters were set up I could see into Chloe's tent at a certain angle— of course, I only look if her curtain is up. Her's faced the fire pit, while mine, directly across from hers only tilted more towards the ocean. It was useful in times like this, I wasn't certain on how to talk to her in person, what would I even say? I could still keep an eye on her and give her some space.

I unzipped the bag and dumped out its contents, first aid kit, notebook, phone…wallet! I felt a cold tingle run down my spine as I flipped it open, I shrugged it off, I was just feeling guilty about searching a dead man's belongings… right? I shook my head and proceeded to empty the wallet, out came three different bank cards, forty bucks— both unless here.

"Hey," Chloe whispered as she sat down on one of the logs, I looked up as I pulled out what looked like an ID. She looked like she had been crying again, which was odd because I didn't hear anything. I grunted in reply and turned back to the ID—which I had to do a double take on the picture and the name.

The ID belonged to Liam Malloy, I let out a nervous chuckle and flipped the card over. This had to be a joke, right? I stared at the picture and just willed it to not be true. How could I not have noticed him on the plane? Did he have something to do with Tori and Simon's disappearance?

Liam Malloy was the vilest and corrupt person I have ever met, and he happened to be good friends with Sam—my supposed fiancée. To my knowledge, they fell out of contact the night he tried to beat the shit out of me—which was obviously wrong.

It happened a couple of nights before I proposed. I was at the bar with Simon, it had been awhile since the last time I saw him. Things had gotten too serious with Sam and I didn't know how to fix the issue. I'm not good with people and I tend to be too blunt… people don't respond positively to that.

With a couple of drinks in my system, I told Simon everything that has been going on with Sam. She was controlling, she had to know where I was and who I was with at all times, if I was gone for too long she'd call my phone until I picked up. I shut my phone off once I sat at the bar and haven't touched it since. I knew she was probably freaking out, and I got cocky— I blame the beer. I planned on breaking up with her, it had to happen, I needed to focus more on school rather than what she wanted.

Sam and Liam had ambushed me at my apartment that night. I guess when I didn't pick up my phone and my apartment was empty, she sent out the dogs— Liam. You can probably already guess the outcome of that; Liam overheard everything Simon and I had been talking about and passed it along to Sam.

She was royally pissed. Everything after that is a blur, I remember saying the words, but I know I didn't mean it. I never wanted to get married, I never even wanted a girlfriend! When I woke up the next morning, there was an awful taste in my mouth… and I was engaged.

It didn't get any better from there, in fact, it got a whole lot worse. Sam's dad—Marcel Davidoff— happened to be some big shot in some brutal 'gang,' named the pack—how cliché. Shortly after our engagement, I was threatened by the pack, that if I didn't take good care of Sam I would regret it. Sure, dads typically threaten their daughters significant other, but this was different.

When Sam and I got into a disagreement on the date, I got called into her dad's office to have a talk. I was questioned on my motives for marrying Sam and I thought it was the perfect time o come clean. I was too young to get married, hell I didn't even want to be dating.

Davidoff did not take it well. Dad went missing a week later. Sam insisted it was her father's fault but I refused to believe that, and I still don't. Why the hell would Liam be on that plane? Sam and her family had left days before I did for Puerto Rico, I presumed Liam had gone along with them. I just thought Liam was Sam's puppy dog, I would never have thought she'd stoop so low and fuck him!

A noise to my left startled me out of my thoughts, Chloe sat across from me staring off into the fire. I could see tears from here, and I felt myself become uncomfortable. I've never been that great with emotions—including my own. I took a deep breath and tried to think like Simon, I have to be calm, soothing and most importantly not an asshole!

"Derek?"

"Yeah?" If Simon were here he'd tell me to take it slowly, and think about how my words can affect Chloe.

"W-when I d-die c-can…" She took a deep breath and looked back down at the fire, she was crying again. "Don't bury me next to those bodies." I was stunned, could that be why she was crying?

"Chloe—"

"Can you just promise me that?"

"No!" I grumbled, she looked up at me and glared, I could see the fire dancing in her baby blues. "You're not going to die here, we will find a way off." She gave a quick nod and folded her arms around her stomach.

I looked down at the ID still in my hands and felt anger course through my body. I was starting to think the whole plane crash was a setup, Davidoff was probably still out there pissed and nothing was going to stop him from getting to me, but I knew one thing, I was not letting him get to Chloe.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm so sorry for such a long break! I got in a horrible car accident and I'm slowly healing, so sorry for keeping you waiting! Hope you enjoy!**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own DP

A/N: Long hiatus but I'm back… ?

 _Previously…_

 _I looked down at the ID still in my hands and felt anger course through my body. I was starting to think the whole plane crash was a setup, Davidoff was probably still out there pissed and nothing was going to stop him from getting to me, but I knew one thing, I was not letting him get to Chloe._

 _—_

Week 34

CPOV

"Come on!" I grumbled at the pile of sticks I had been trying to ignite, the wind was being relentless and blew them out. Derek was nowhere to be seen, but that's not unusual for him lately. Ever since the bodies washed up he's been restless, barely around me and when he is all he does is stare, nothing in particular, whatever his eyes land on that's where they stay.

Maybe I freaked him out? I panicked, I saw dead bodies, being stuck here all alone, your mind can't help but think about when it will end. Will we get off this island together? Or will we both just die here? If something happened to me Derek could easily survive, but if it was vise versa… I feel like I wouldn't last long.

Speaking of Derek, he's usually back to the camp by now, it was part of the agreement… after Tori and Simon left. He promised he wouldn't just disappear like them, if it was any other day then he'd be starting the fire and I would be collecting berries. Then he'd cook the fish or whatever he managed to hunt down. But instead, I'm stuck here struggling to just start a simple fire!

The wind howled whipping my hair into my face, and diminishing the little sparks that tried to latch onto the wood. It was no use, I couldn't do this without someone else to block the wind.

Giving up, I stormed into the woods determined to find Derek. He needed to know that he can't just declare rules and then not follow them!

"Hypocritical jacka— huh." I expected to find Derek at the cliff, but it was deserted. I came in all hot and heavy and he wasn't even there on the receiving end, how typical. He could be at the waterfall, but I don't know why he wouldn't have stopped by the camp before going there. It's just safety precautions, or was I becoming crazy?

I walked to the edge and looked down at the choppy water, it looked how the wind felt, moody.

I wonder what it's like to be underwater during a storm, do the animals react a different way or just go on their usual day? Some times, out in the distance, Derek and I would see dolphins jumping out of the water during nice, sunny days. We rarely have rainy days, so I haven't been able to do an observation on that.

Off in the distance, something white caught my eye, it looked like a boat… or was I just imagining it? I blinked hard twice, rubbed the sand out of my eyes and looked again, it definitely was a boat!

"Hey!" I screamed. "Derek! Come here!" I panicked, I didn't want to leave in case the boat left but I needed Derek, he was taller.

I jumped and waved my arms. I screamed for the boat to stop, to spot me, to stop and rescue me. But nothing happened. I screamed until my throat became sore, but they were left unanswered. I was too far away, too small, too quiet.

It was no use, they weren't going to see me in this jungle. I fell to the ground as the sobs came up, knocking the wind out of me. We could have been saved, that was the forest boat to ever been seen from this island the whole fucking time we've been here. I could have been on my way home. Maybe it was Tori and Simon sending help for us? Maybe they were okay and alive?

A rustle from the bushes shook me from my daydream, Derek stepped out of the shadows with a look of concern spread across his face. Anger bubbled up in my chest, if he had just been at the campsite then I wouldn't have wondered off to find him. Then I wouldn't have seen the boat and I would be blissfully ignorant to the chance of getting off this island.

"Chloe? What's wrong?" He knelt down beside me and tried to look in my eye, but I kept looking away. I heard him sigh the familiar sign of his impatience. "Could you pl—"

"Where were you, Derek?" I snapped. I met his eyes and then quickly looked away. He seemed confused and ... embarrassed?

"I went for a walk. Why?"

"Bullshit! You would never leave me there, alone, just to go for a walk!"

"Alone? Why does it matter where I went? It's not like I can go very far!" He snapped.

"Because..." a million thoughts ran through my mind. I was terrified of being alone, I didn't —don't want to deal with this crap without him. I thought of the bodies just a hundred feet away, that could have been us.

"Chloe?"

"Never mind, Derek."

"What's going on?" He lowered his voice but it was still cold.

"Why won't you tell me? We are the only two on this island! So what's the use of keeping shit to yourself?"

"I don't have to tell you every little thing I do! Maybe I want my own space?" He hollered.

"Fine, your wish is my command. You got your space, I don't need any more of your bullshit!" I stood and walked away not even bothering to look back.I didn't have any particular destination in mind, I just needed space-ironic as it is.

I ended up at the waterfall it wasn't warm, but I didn't have anything else to do to waste time. That's all we do here, find ways to waste the day away to just wake up and do it all over again.

I stripped and carefully placed my clothes on a rock. I took a deep breath and tried to forget about Derek, but that's the only thing I could actually think of. Everything else before the island seemed like a blur, another life.

I grumbled as I ducked under the water, it felt nice to have some silence for once.

I paddled along the edge of the waterfall for a while, my mind wandering back to home. I wonder what dad and Lauren were doing? We've been here for almost nine months... they probably stopped the search party after a month, maybe less.

I knew my dad though, he wouldn't rest until I was found. I have no idea what Aunt Lauren would be doing... probably just guilting my dad even more.

I sighed as I headed back to my clothes. I was still irritated with Derek but I couldn't stay in the lake any longer without turning into a prune. I stepped onto the small bank and hissed when my foot came into contact with something sharp.

I couldn't see anything except blood when I looked down, it wasn't a slow trickle either, this was heavy.

This looked bad.

I hobbled over to my clothes and quickly put my pants & bra on. I used my shirt as a way to put pressure onto the cut, there was no way I can just stay here until Derek found me. I'd bleed out or attract something that could eat me. I tied the shirt tightly around my foot and started hobbling down the pathway.

I found Derek sitting by the dead fire with a stick, poking it with a stick. I wobbled my way over to the other log and plopped down.

"Did you enjoy your space?" He asked his undivided attention on the fire pit. I rolled my eyes and tried to concentrate on anything else, but the pain. The sun had finally come out, it felt nice on my damp back.

"Where's the first aid kit?" I asked.

His head snapped up and his eyes searched all over me to see what was hurt. I don't know what ticked him off — the fact that I was only wearing a bra or the bloody shirt on my foot. He quickly jumped up and headed to his tent. It didn't take long before he was in front of me taking the shirt off of my injured foot.

"What were you doing?"

"I needed to cool off, so I went swimming and I cut my foot off of something."

"Damn it, Chloe!" He grumbled as he wiped away the sand to examine the cut.

"What's my prognosis, Doc?" I asked.

"It's deep. You're going to need stitches or it'll get infected."

"What? No! Derek, seriously? That's not funny!"

"I'm not joking! I could stick my pinky in there and still have wiggle room! I'll just get the needle and it'll have to do. We will keep it clean..."

"No, no, no! I c-can't!" I pulled my foot back and tried to get away from him, but all I did was fall on my back.

"Chloe it's either that or lose a ton of blood and get the cut infected!" He grabbed my ankle and pulled me towards him. I panicked and tried to get away, but it was no use— he was a lot stronger than I— when I wasn't losing a ton of blood. I knew he was right if I didn't get the cut closed soon I'd lose too much blood… and die.

But that didn't stop my crying and panic.

"Just breathe, it won't hurt as much as you think. Think of anything but your foot and it'll be done before you know it." Derek whispered and he quickly sprayed something on my foot that caused a burning sensation. I let out a blood-curdling scream.

"Jesus Chloe, I didn't even start!"

"It still hurt!" I hissed through my tears. Derek sighed and handed me what once was a wallet, but now it looked like a block of jerky.

"Use this to bite down on, I'm not going to lie, it's going to hurt. I don't have anything to numb it with…" his voice faded and almost sounded like it broke at the end. I looked back at him, he was shaking his head and observing the injury. He grabbed the needle from the kit and gave me a quick reassuring glance.

"Don't worry, I've done this plenty of times."

"On who?"

"A story for another time put this in your mouth and breathe." I did as he said and waited. His touches were gentle, he counted to three and then everything went black.

I gently place Chloe in her tent, putting a small log under her foot to keep the sand out of her wound. It was the best that I could do considering our circumstances, I'm not sure as to how she's going to get around, yet. But for now, I need to rest. My mind has been racing ever since I found his wallet, what did it mean? Could it really have been a setup?

Shaking my head I grabbed a couple of logs and threw them into the pit. It was probably going to cool down considerably tonight, the wind didn't seem to be slowing down at all. I huddled over the rocks as I did my best to catch a spark, it took a couple of tries, but after one last frustrated whack, it was lit.

I stayed in place until I was sure the fire was strong enough to withstand the wind. I walked to the squirrel traps and grabbed what was provided and headed back to camp, I didn't want to be gone long in case Chloe woke up.

She seemed freaked earlier about me being gone for too long. Where did she think I went? There is no chance I would just leave her here alone, even in my darkest times I still always try to do what Simon said. "Put yourself in other people shoes, and then you can see the problem from their view."

When I got back she was still passed out, the swelling looked brutal and tomorrow she was going to feel it big time. I started prepping for dinner, my mind already zoned out, thinking about anything except what's going on here.

As I placed the squirrels over the fire, Chloe started coming to, her moaning caught my attention and snapped me out of my thought real quick. At first, I thought she was in pain, but when I took a closer look there was a small smile. I took a deep breath and moved even closer to see if she was awake, her eyes were closed and her mouth was kind of slack, she was a drooler.

My eyes wandered down to her chest, realizing that she was still in just a bra. Of course, I've seen her in it before, it gets hot. But this felt different, she looked different, her sun-kissed skin glowed under the tarp. Her light red hair spilled out from under her neck, and over her chest, stopping right before her breasts. She shuffled and moaned again, but this time from the pain, her eyes fluttered open.

"Good, you're up, dinner is almost ready," I grunted and quickly walked back to the pit. What the hell was that? What the hell was I doing? Just staring her while she slept, especially half naked is defiantly not going to get her on my good side.

I sat down on the log and flipped the squirrel over, and took a deep breath. My adrenaline was spiking through the roof lately. I looked over at Chloe's tent, what was I thinking about leaving her alone? She can't walk correctly non injured.

"Don't move, you'll get sand in your cut!" I stopped her before she could place her injured foot down.

"How am I suppose to get around? Do you really expect me to stay here all day, alone?"

"No, you'd never listen anyway." I scoffed. She glared at me and then started to hobble over.

"Can you turn around?"

"For what?" I asked as I turned my back to her. I could hear her shuffling closer, but I wasn't expecting her to touch me. When her hand made contact with my shoulder, it sent shivers down my spine. It has been far too long since I've been touch by another human in a tenderly way.

"Scooch down, so you can carry me to the fire…" her voice seemed quiet even for her. I turned and met her eyes, only for a second before she quickly looked away. Was she blushing? I did as I was told and soon enough her arms were wrapped around my neck, I grabbed her good leg and hoisted her up, she was lighter than what I used to. Possibly because she's been passed out the last times I've carried her.

Her other leg wrapped around my waist, connecting with her other foot, I placed my other hand on her thigh and lifted her up a bit. She let out a soft gasp as my hand made contact with her shorts.

"Sorry," I grunted and headed towards the fire, which I felt my face resembled quite nicely. My mind was racing as I walked the short distance, on how to let her down without hurting her foot or touching her… delicacies.

We reached the log that I picked for my choosing, closest to the woods and her tent, just in case. I let go of her good leg and grabbed her hands and swung her around so she was facing me. Then gently placed her onto the log, keeping her bad foot away from the sand.

I handed her the squirrel and berries, then we ate in silence. She picked at her squirrel offering as usual but downed the berries in seconds. I watched her out of the corner of my eye, as she sipped out of the coconut bowl, some water spilled and landed on her chest. This caught my attention, as it traveled ever so slowly down her chest, some splashed onto her bra too and the small amount of skin that was shown.

I pulled my attention away and threw my head into my hands.

Oh god, I need a cold shower.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I don't own DP

A/N: Surprise!

Rated M, so beware…

I didn't know how detailed you guys would want it, I don't want to go full-on erotica if y'all ain't fans! SO let me know!

* * *

 _Previously…_

 _She picked at her squirrel offering as usual but downed the berries in seconds. I watched her out of the corner of my eye, as she sipped out of the coconut bowl, some water spilled and landed on her chest. This caught my attention, as it traveled ever so slowly down her chest, some splashed onto her bra too and the small amount of skin that was shown._

 _I pulled my attention away and threw my head into my hands._

 _Oh god, I need a cold shower._

* * *

 _CPOV_ _36 weeks_

The past three weeks have been a living hell. The weather has been cloudy along with on and off downpour, we've been without a fire for almost a full week. Derek attempted to build a fort over the fire pit, but the excess rain caused the leaves to rip. Also, the tension between us didn't help the situation at all.

Walking was impossible with a huge gash on the bottom of my foot, so we stuck with the piggyback style. It was the least invasive way of transportation, we tried it bridal style, but I was still without a shirt—considering it was covered in blood. Plus, it seemed to make him tense.

Derek would barely look at me lately, not even when he was talking to me, and him being around was a rare occurrence. He was always off in the woods, I assumed he was hunting, but he always came back empty handed. It was starting to frustrate me, I was stuck on the beach until my foot healed. Why wouldn't he just tell me where he went! I was tired of being alone all the time.

I looked at the tree with all the tallies, some faded from when we first arrived, it looks like the tree was growing over the marks. I placed my hand over the raised wood and felt an overwhelming sense of dread. No one was looking for us, and as much as I hated to think about it, we were probably going to die here.

There was no use of sugar coating it. That one boat, in the months we've been here, seemed to diminish any type of hope that I had left. We were stuck here… There was no point in holding everything inside when there was someone here on the island I could talk to and share my fears with.

"Fuck it," I muttered to myself as I started the long trek through the woods. I was going to give him a piece of my mind, I was tired of being left out of everything he did, whether he liked it or not, we are all that we have.

I made it halfway up the cliff when I had a brief moment of doubt, maybe I should just turn back? My foot was screaming for a break, I was coming up to the watering hole, and a nice soak could help cool my temper, but I was still going to find Derek and tell him off!

I came out on top of the waterfall, I was higher up than I originally thought, and when I walked to the edge of the rocks I could see directly below to the pond. With the waterfall roaring on my left, I noticed a piece of clothing hanging on one of the branches near the water's edge. My eyes searched the body of water, he had to be close by, unless he completely lost it and right now running around the island butt naked.

A flash of movement on my left directed my attention, I could barely see through the water, but from what I could tell it looked like Derek. His back was to me, and his head was directly under the waterfall. Even if he wanted to he wouldn't be able to hear me, even if we were five feet away.

He turned towards me and I automatically froze, could he see me through the water _and_ the trees? My heart was racing a million beats a second, great, he probably thought I was spying on him! Even though I technically I was.

After holding my breath for what seemed like forever, I finally let go and leaned against the nearest tree. He clearly didn't see me watching him, and if he did see me I don't think he'd really care.

A part of me wanted to turn away and head back to camp, but the majority wanted to wait and see. What I was waiting to see was something I'm too ashamed to even think out loud. It's normal to be curious, right?

He swam out from under the waterfall and into the middle of the pond, his tan back glistened in the light. I watched as the sun caught every muscle in his arm as he flawlessly paddled across the body of water. When he stood up I couldn't help but gasp, it was involuntary, as well as the girly giggle that followed it.

It's a good thing I was already leaning against something, my knees were starting to become weak. I wasn't really sure what I was expecting, but I didn't think he would look so… striking. He's shirtless almost every day, but seeing him completely naked, utterly vulnerable, was breathtaking.

He stood in the tree line, his head turned towards the camp, his shorts still in his hands. He stood like that for a while, like he was thinking something over. Was he thinking about me alone at the camp? I let out another giggle, little did he know I was closer than he thought.

After months of being stuck with someone you pick up pond their body language, and from here I could see him let out a sigh. His _whole_ body seemed to tense up, and I didn't resist when my eyes started to explore, and the heat from my face traveling throughout my body.

I watched in fascination and shock, why was I still watching? I knew deep down that I should leave, just get up and walk back to camp. Forget that this had ever happened and move on with my day… but I didn't. I sat there and watched as he released his tension.

It made me feel all jittery inside, I was …excited, my heart rate was through the roof and I felt like I was on the edge of my seat. I watched his form from far away as he did something so private, that my shame was starting to dominate the excitement. I stood up and started to back away, but my eyes were still watching as he threw his head back I stumbled and hissed as my injured foot caught onto something. Kneeling on the ground, I froze in fear that Derek may have heard me. I took a moment to catch my breath before peaking out from behind the tree, he was gone.

"Shit." I stood up and took off without thinking much about it. I didn't want to be found _here_. I don't know if I could face him after what I just saw, I didn't know if I could act right. So I ended up on the cliff, overlooking the choppy water gulping in the salty air. Shame pour over me and I allowed it to bring me to my knees, I was so screwed up from being on this island that I just watched… This has to be the lowest I have ever felt about myself, this by far is the creepiest thing I have ever done.

I took another deep breath and closed my eyes, but all I saw was Derek, naked and sweaty. I opened them and shook my head, what was I becoming? As I sat there watching the water splash against the rocks, my mind wanders into the dirtier territory. I know for a fact that Derek has seen me naked, on complete accident though, but I wonder what he thought of it. I was probably just an annoying little kid to him that he had to take care of, only because he would feel guilty if anything happened to me.

I thought back to the night when he was trying to teach me to skin a fish, I noticed how handsome he could look when he wasn't pissed. His smile was something else too, probably because it was a rare sight. I wonder what went through his head when he was doing that stuff, or what his lips felt like against my neck. I shivered at the thought and blushed when I felt a small smile creep across my face.

"Chloe?" I was rudely pulled out of my thoughts to be looking in the same green eyes I had been fantasizing about. I felt my face flush, knowing I saw him at his most vulnerable time, doing something private and I stood and watched. Like an invasive perv.

"What are you doing up here? What about your cut? You could have opened the stitches and then you'd be shit out of luck because I don't have anymore thread!" Ah, the real Derek, the one who pisses me off daily, it felt great to hear his lectures and know that what just happened was a brief lapse of sanity. The fluffy feelings vanished and the anger came flooding back.

"Is this an only Derek area? Did you claim this part of the island?" He rolled his eyes, and I could already know what he was going to say."Don't start with me being overdramatic! You won't even look me in the eyes anymore! You run off as soon as you can and then come back after sunset!"

"Sorry, Dear, the boys from the office wanted to grab a couple of beers after work, I wasn't aware I had a curfew!" He said, not holding back on the sarcasm.

"You know damn well I can't walk around, so your conclusion to that problem was to just leave me alone all day? You bitched at me when you saw that I left on my own, I can't do anything without pissing you off!"

"The clouds are darkest than they've ever been," he had his hands in his pockets, his head facing the sky. He was right, they were dark and low, it looked like another storm coming in. I observed his body language, his muscles were tense and his nostrils were flared as if he was smelling this air.

"So?" I asked.

"If my calculations are correct it's around late fall early winter, and that's way past tornado season," he looked down at me, his green eyes flaring with a million emotions. "I don't know where exactly we are but this storm doesn't look good." I crossed my arms over my bare torso and shivered against the wind. I was born and raised in a city, I never had to deal with or even worry about tornados.

"A t-tornado? Here?" I looked at the tiny view of the island that we had from here, we had no sort of cover other than tents made out of sticks. I'm surprised they've lasted as long as they have in this wind.

"I'll think of something," he looked down at my leg and winced. "How's your foot?"

"It's… fine," I was kind of taken aback by his question, he's been so rash lately. His brows furrowed and he leaned forward, I held my breath as he inched closer, his hand swept along my shin. I jumped at the contact as he examined the scratch, but it also sent long delightful shivers to the center of my body.

"What's this from? Running from pigs again?" He chuckled but I felt my face drain, the memory of running from the pig and then literally running into him naked. I guess what happened earlier is tit for tat, in a way. "What?" He stood up again and looked me in the eyes, I couldn't keep the contact for long without feeling like he could read it on my face.

"I-I tripped wh-when I was going to the bathroom, that's what it must be from." I cursed internally at the stutters, but he didn't seem to notice.

"We should go back to the camp, give your foot a rest," he crouched in front of me and I knew my cue, but I hesitated. The quick touch earlier had nearly sent me over the edge, but he was right, my foot was throbbing from walking on the rough ground with no bandage.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling his warm back against my chest had a calming effect. I felt his hand grab my injured leg and pull it around him, shivers flew from the location of his hand to the tips of my fingertips. I clenched my hand in reflex, digging into Derek's arm instead of my own. I heard him breathe in quickly and then he cleared his throat as he headed towards the woods.

The rocking and swaying of the walk made my chest rub awkwardly against his back, I tried to stop it from happening but I only got scolded for fidgeting too much. Halfway down the hill, it started to rain, it was slow at first but quickly became heavy, drenching us instantly. Derek's grip on my legs tightened, sending another wave of electricity, this one much stronger than the last. I was starting to get light headed so I leaned forward until my forehead rested on his shoulder. I was breathing hard, as was he, but he was the one carrying me down a slippery hill.

When we arrived at camp my tent was blown over, half of the wall completely torn apart. "Shit!" Derek grumbled as we passed and went into his tent, it was the bigger one that we all made. He set me down, his fingers gliding across my thigh lightly. I swayed slightly, luckily his arm was still around me, balancing me instantly.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Will you be okay if I left for a little bit?"

"What? Where are you going?" I was confused about why he was asking me in the first place, he usually left without saying anything.

"The rain is wearing the tent down, we only have this one for now," he looked out at the pouring rain, and then quickly back at me. "I'll be right back, it's just raining for now." Then he gone, disappeared in the rain.

* * *

Derek was gone for more than twenty minutes, the rain seemed to be coming down harder, I couldn't even see two feet in front of me. I was worried, what if he slipped and fell or got injured from the rain impairing his vision too much.

I sprawled out on the sand and claimed my train of thoughts, Derek knew how to take care of himself, I had nothing to worry about. My thighs still tingled from his touches, it was a frustrating feeling like this when I know he would never dream of me like that. I looked down at my chest and frowned, there was not much to show for it, I looked like a twelve-year-old boy. I pulled my bra to the side and examined them pushed together, maybe if I magically gained five pounds and they directly went there then I'd look my age.

"Chl—" Derek barged in, my bra still pushed to the side, I scrambled and corrected my clothing.

"What?"

"We're moving camp, C'mon," he crouched down and I climbed on with no hesitation. I was curious about where we were moving to, but also a little disappointed, there was little to no reaction from Derek.

We trekked through the rain once again, deep into the woods, past the waterfall and cliff. There was a clearing in the woods with a bunch of ferns growing across the land, Derek took a sharp right and headed up a small hill. There was a small opening between two rocks that normally would have been overlooked.

Derek entered the crevice guiding me along with him, the slit wasn't that wide but clearly wide enough for Derek to walk through. It eventually opened up into a much wider cave that broke off into two different tunnels.

"I found this a couple of days ago, I had to make sure that there were no nests in here before it would be okay to "move" in." He spun around and then stopped, he looked relaxed in a way. He found us a better shelter from the rain and wind, he was much better at this survival shit than I was.

"Is this where you took off too?"

"Yeah, I was clearing it out, I know you can't walk in the woods yet, so that's why I wanted to wait until your foot was healed. But the storm kind of forced it to happen sooner."

"Oh," I couldn't think of anything else to say, I was so dumbfounded by how considerate he was being. Did he hit his head?

"I'm going to run back to the shore to grab the tarp and what's left of the first aid kit. I brought in some wood a couple of days ago, it should be dry so you can try to start a fire and dry off."

"Okay." He took off while I rubbed the sticks together, this time it only took two tries. Soon enough I was sitting by a warm fire, after a whole week of dealing with the shitty wind and no heat. I felt calmer and less frustrated, I felt my eyelids start to droop and become heavy.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own DP

A/N: Thanks for the reviews!

* * *

 _Previously…_

" _I'm going to run back to the shore to grab the tarp and what's left of the first aid kit. I brought in some wood a couple of days ago, it should be dry so you can try to start a fire and dry off."_

 _"Okay." He took off while I rubbed the sticks together, this time it only took two tries. Soon enough I was sitting by a warm fire, after a whole week of dealing with the shitty wind and no heat. I felt calmer and less frustrated, and soon enough I felt my eyelids start to droop and become heavy._

* * *

CPOV 40 weeks

The storm passed a couple of days later, but we decided it was best to keep camp in the cave, it was easier to keep warm and less maintenance. The weather was just going to keep getting colder, so the farther away from the shore the better. We both knew that we were most likely not going to spot another boat, so it was no use staying there.

I added another log to the fire and rotated the kabob of meat, I thought that the cave was a wee bit cozier. The main cave was where we had the fire and the sitting logs, then there were two tunnels branching off. The left one led down a dark slope, Derek had the balls one day to explore it and found out that it's connected to the lake. If you followed the tiny trickle of water, then you'd come out right behind the waterfall.

It was breathtaking every time I stepped out from the water, everything seemed more alive from this angle. The way the sun hit the trees that drooped into the water, it cast a green glow causing the water to look a turquoise color.

The second tunnel was shorter and flat, that's where we decided the sleeping quarters would be. It was shallow enough that the fire warmed it up quickly, and if it got too hot we just put up the leaf curtain. It seemed to work with blocking out the heat, and the bugs.

"You ready?" Derek came out from the lagoon tunnel, holding a mini shank. His shoulder length hair was wet and dripping onto his chest. I watched him walk over, his broad shoulders glistened with water, the flames casting an orange hue. The only thing dry were his shorts.

"For what?" I asked and turned away to hide my embarrassment, flashes of him naked were all that was running through my brain. It was sending numerous tingles of electricity to the center of my body, making my knees give out. I plopped down onto a log and took a deep breath.

"Your foot is healed, its time to take the stitches out." He crouched in front of me and took ahold of the once-injured foot. He hummed while he examined, the song sounded familiar, but it was out of tune so I couldn't quite put my finger on it. The procedure was quick, he cut one end of each stitch and then pulled them out one by one.

"All set." He slouched back so he was on his butt, my leg still in his lap. "You have a nasty scar, but what do you expect with a sewing needle." He chuckled, and when it echoed off the cave walls, I didn't try and suppress it, I let out a giggle as well. Hearing him laugh even for a split second seemed to lighten my mood, or even seeing him smile.

I leaned back and stretched out, closing my eyes and enjoying it all, I wiggled my foot and stretched my toes. There was no longer than irritating tightness or the constant itching. Walking should be a breeze now.

When I sat back up, my foot was still in Derek's lap, and he sat there wide eye staring into the fire. My foot was located on something hard, and I knew right away that I caused that, I froze not sure what the next move should be.

Obviously, take my foot off of him, but would that make it worse,—visibility wise, or make him embarrassed because he would know I felt it? I mean how could you _not_? It wasn't being subtle at all.

Derek was the one to make the next move, he gently took my foot off his lap and then stood up to rotate the squirrels. My cheeks reddened as the front of his shorts tented out a tad, I looked down at my leg, a little disappointed that that's probably the farthest I'll ever get. From my foot accidentally rubbing him.

We ate in uncomfortable silence, at least it was on my end. I wasn't sure what to say when all I could think about was the lake. Every time he went down the left tunnel I had to scold myself for wanting to follow, it was tempting. Sleeping in the same area and the wild dreams I have been having do not mix.

What if I talk in my sleep? What if I _do_ something embarrassing in my sleep? He would never tell, he'd keep it to himself to the grave, and I think that makes it worse. If I know what I did then I can probably explain it, if not then he can use any interpretation his mind came up with.

"Earth to Chloe?" I focused back as Derek waved his hand in front of my face, I swatted it away in annoyance.

"What?"

"Wanna go for a swim?" His eyes searched my face with a hint of concern, he had already cleaned up from dinner while I had been zoned out.

"Now? It's dark and probably freezing!"

"You haven't been out of the cave in days, it's been getting warmer, not summer warm, but warm enough for a swim." He pulled me up by my wrist and lead us to the left tunnel, my brain was stalling, I couldn't think of an excuse. Soon enough we were engulfed in darkness, the only thing keeping me from eating shit was Derek. He held my forearm as we navigated the tunnel, he put up some torches, but they only did so much.

We soon reached the small trickle of water, the sound of the splashes echoed against the walls, calming my nerves. My stomach was doing jumping-jacks right now, my mouth was getting all dry, why was I so nervous?

The waterfall could be heard before seen, it's roaring quickly becoming deafening. I couldn't hear anything else if I tried, Derek stopped short, which ended with me running into his back. I was right about it being dark, but he was right about the heat, the temperature in the cave, underground, was a lot different from the outdoors.

"Sorry," I said out of habit, he couldn't hear me. He looked down at me and let go of my hand, in a matter of seconds he was stripping off his shorts and into the water.

He soon emerged with a huge grin on his face, that smile made my chest ache with happiness, but I stood frozen on the edge.

 _It was either take your bra off now or sit in a wet one for the rest of the night…_

I felt myself unclip the back strap, all while my brain was screaming at me, asking me what the hell are you doing? I took one deep breath and let go, I was shaking uncontrollably but smiling all at once, I didn't allow myself to give it another thought. I pushed down my shorts and jumped in, quickly feeling the cool water bubble up my sides as I plunged deeper.

When I emerged I was about ten feet away from Derek. He stood still, looking down at the water, the fishes swam by and liked to nibble at toes. I hesitated before walking closer, the moonlight was bright enough to see everything, and my burst of confidence had faltered.

I looked up and watched the stars twinkle back at me, I remember the first time I saw that many stars all at once were when we first arrived. But now it was just everyday scenery, it didn't fascinate me as much as it did before.

"Do you miss the city?"

"Huh?" When Derek looked up at the sky I could see a sly smile on the corner of his mouth, but when I repeated the question the smile disappeared.

"Of course, but there's not much to go home to," he grunted in his usual blunt manner.

"You don't know that!" He turned to me, for the first time we were standing face to face, naked. "Y-you have your fiancé a-and m-maybe Simon and Tori made it somewhere safe."

"The finance that cheated on me, yeah right. She's probably off looking for other prey. As for Simon and Tori, they would have been a lot safer if they just stayed here!" In his anger, he had moved closer. I could only see the places the moonlight touched: the plane of his cheekbone as his head tilted down, a lock of hair falling over his brow, the blade of his shoulder. We stood in silence, I listened to the peepers as they rang out their mating calls. The lake looked eerier at night, but for some reason, I wasn't creeped out by it. Maybe it had to do with the fact Derek was here, or that I consider it as home now.

"The last time we were here together was with them," I gestured to the lake and looked up at the waterfall. Where, months ago, Simon and Derek had jumped off the cliff and thrown Tori over with them. We thought everything was smooth sailing from there, but oh, were we so wrong.

"Yeah, and you took a hissy fit because I threw you in," he chuckled and splashed a bug away, but most of it hit my side.

"I didn't have a change of clothes!" I said as I wiped the water off of my face.

"You're in the water now."

"Yeah, _naked_ , I wasn't going to strip down so you could—" I stopped talking, he was looking at me as if he was studying my face, did I have something on it? A bug? I touched my face but felt nothing out of ordinary, could be the shadows from the moon. Suddenly feeling very exposed, I crossed my arms over my chest and sank until my shoulders were underwater.

"What's the use of being shy? It's the two of us, and there's a high probability we will be stuck here for good," he said, bluntly breaking the silence. Hearing those words come out of his mouth rattled me for more reasons than one. The first being he wasn't too fond of sharing how he was feeling and I always had hope that there was a backup plan. If no one came for us then we would go, but that isn't looking too promising, considering Tori and Simon.

I slowly started paddling to shore, my limbs doing what they were trained to do while my mental state shut down. I know I've been saying the same thing this whole time, but hearing it from another person, was hard.

"Chloe?" Derek's voice was soft, he was splashing his way over soon enough, cutting my exit off. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? You just diminished any sense of hope I had left! I know we're stuck here, for now, but you said you wouldn't let us die here!"

"I'm not superman! I can't do everything! That ship you saw has a higher chance of being a Fata Morgana than an actual ship! You're so delusional and chalked up on hope that you'll believe _anything_ is a sign from the gods!" He threw up his hands and praised the night sky. He frustratingly looked good looking when he was pissed, his eyes turned a lighter color and seemed to glow in the moonlight.

"I found us a better shelter, I've saved you from numerous near death experiences and I've stitched up your wounds, consider yourself lucky for making it this far."

"I don't want to stay here, Derek." He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, he looked lost, sad and tired all in one. I knew I should have shown more gratitude towards him, he was right, I would have been dead long ago if it wasn't for him.

"I know." He whispered and walked off back into the cave, leaving me alone in the water. Suddenly, the lake didn't feel as welcoming as before.

* * *

 _"The last time we were here together was with them," I said and my voice seemed to echo off the stones of the lake._

 _"Yeah, and you took a hissy fit because I threw you in," he chuckled and splashed a bug away, but most of it hit my side._

 _"I didn't have a change of clothes!" I said as I wiped the water off of my face._

 _"You're in the water now," he said softly as he moved closer, the movement splashing debris from the sea floor making the water murky._

 _"Yeah, naked,"_

 _"That's okay with me," he was close enough to touch now, I felt my hand come up out of the water and go towards him, with a mind of its own. It landed on his left pec, and slowly traveled down his abs, to his navel. My hand was now at water level, I looked up and met his gaze. It was like he was thinking the same thing, his face was showing the same emotions my insides were screaming._

 _All while keeping eye contact, my hand followed the line of hair that lead from his navel to his southern regions. When my hand made contact I heard him suck in air, and then his lips were on mine._

I bolted up clutching my sweaty chest as I tried to catch my breath. Everything was silent, except for the faint crackle from the fire and Derek's light snore. I looked around the dim cave, Derek was sprawled out, face down on the tarp, mumbling something incoherent. I was still baffled that he was the cause of my dirty dreams.

Since we moved into the same area, the dreams have been constant and getting dirtier with each passing day. Clearly, my mind makes everything he and I did dirty, and swimming together last night had stirred up my imagination. The dream felt so vivid, if it wasn't for the dirty rated R part, then I wouldn't have been able to tell memories from dreams.

Derek stirred and then abruptly sat up, looking over at my side of the room. He seemed surprised to see me up, was he really awake or still out of it? We had gone to bed angry with each other, which could be the reason for the odd looks.

"You good?" his voice was sleepy and hoarse, but otherwise he seemed wide awake.

"I can't sleep," I half lied. I could but I knew when I did it would be fluff wild sex scenarios that would never happen.

"Bad dreams?" He scooted closer to me but remained on the tarp, "I get them too, what are yours about?" I wouldn't necessarily call them bad dreams, but they lead to bad thoughts. He must have taken my silence for still being angry because he sighed and walked over, sitting down next to my makeshift bed. It was fairly comfortable compared to the scratchy and thin tarp, so Derek switched with me on our first night in the cave.

"I'm sorry about earlier, but it is time, to be honest with each other. We are most likely never going to get off this island, I can keep looking… or I can just try and make our life a little bit better." I was lost for words, but I knew he was right, it was something I had been wrestling with all by myself and knowing he had been feeling the same way put me at ease.

All of that fear and anxiety I had been holding in all of these months, finally let go, and I became a bubbler fish, sobbing like a fool. I would never see my family again, I would never step foot into my apartment or sleep with my stuffed koala. I would never get to finish school or finish a movie, this was our reality now.

Derek looked stunned, how does one handle a crying woman? I couldn't help but chuckle, it was like I could read his mind. He recovered quickly and swooped me into a sideways hug, even if he was an awkward comforter, he could just be sitting there and it would have helped.

Soon enough the tears subsided and I was left with horrible hiccups, each one rang out and echoed off the walls. We sat there leaning against one another for who knows how long, but it was long enough that I thought he had fallen asleep. I leaned back and looked up at him, we caught eyes and a cluster of butterflies went off on cue in my stomach.

"So, what do we do now?" I whispered, half afraid it would ruin the moment.

"I can think of a couple of things…"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I don't own darkest powers

A/N:

—

 _Previously…._

 _We sat there leaning against one another for who knows how long, but it was long enough that I thought he had fallen asleep. I leaned back and looked up at him, we caught eyes and a cluster of butterflies went off on cue in my stomach._

 _"So, what do we do now?" I whispered, half afraid it would ruin the moment._

 _"I can think of a couple of things…"_

—

CPOV Week 43

I took a deep breath enjoying the coolness of the fresh air and the sprinkles of water splashing my face. I took another bite out of the banana I had been holding. Today was going to be another full day of work, it's all we've been doing for the past couple weeks. Derek had a million plans to improve our home, as odd as it is to say that, but it's true.

"You ate the last banana?" Derek grunted as he rounded the cave corner, the roar of the water becoming background noise.

"Yeah, there's plenty more, Derek!" He rolled his eyes and huffed, clearly he woke up on the wrong side of the bed… tarp? Either way, he was grumpy. "Do you want the rest of this one?" I looked at the tiny amount left and felt stupid as soon as it came out go my mouth.

"No." He tossed the banana aside.

"Well, it's not like there's a banana shortage, there are trees brimming with them!"

"How about when you finish something it's proper to replenish it!"

"What the hell is your problem? Could you let me wake up before you darken my mood? I was going out to get more if you gave me a chance to explain myself!" I frustratingly ran a hand through my hair, everything seemed fine between us until he blows up over dumb shit. He sighed and leaned against the rock wall, I was growing frustrated with this shit. It was like he had PMS!

"Did you sleep? Are you hungry? Because you're acting like a major bitch." I snapped. I tossed what was left of the discarded banana into the woods and walked to the edge of the cave floor, right before the waterfall. On the side of the cave, we had made a bamboo ladder that leads up to the river and stabled it with the nearby trees.

I climbed up the ladder and made sure the strings were properly tied, the heat seemed to make them loose. Once I was at the top I went back to what we had been working on for the past week, trying to connect the river water to the cave.

So far we had hollow bamboo sticks lining the edge of the river, all we had to do was connect the ones we made down there to the ones up here. But with Derek's sour mood it will probably take longer than usual, he has to make sure everything is correct, the way he likes it.

Sure enough Derek came up the ladder holding the parts we had to connect, his mood not any better than when I left him, or maybe I made it worse by calling him a bitch. He didn't say anything as he secured the pipes, digging a hole into the ground and surrounding it with rocks.

"Go down to the cave and see if the water is flowing through," he didn't look at me as he barked orders and I didn't stick around long enough to care. I hurried down the ladder and followed the bamboo trail. It stopped right before the cave became steep, we had put up torches around the area and found a tinier cave that Derek wanted to make into the "bathroom." I had no idea how he was planning on doing this, but I tried to help the best that I could.

I heard the rush of water coming through the pipes and laughed as it started gushing out of the end. I jogged back to the ladder and met Derek at the bottom as he was climbing down.

"It worked! It goes all the way through to the end," I huffed and smiled, maybe this would cheer him up?

"Great, now we should get started on the bamboo needed for the bottom cave." He brushed past me and headed back.

I think we should at least celebrate! We finished a big project, that deserves an award!" I hollered after him, she stopped and shook his head. "Of course not, that would mean having fun, and I don't think you even know how to do that."

"Stop acting like a child."

"I'm not! You are!" I winced at how that sounded out loud.

Childish… that's how he thought to go me.

"That's how this works in the real world, Chloe. Get used to it."

"Yeah, and if this was the real world I would be home, with my family, instead of being stuck here with _you_!" I spat the words out with so much venom I was shocked that it really came from me.

"Go for a swim, have a break, do something fun on your own," his voice was strained as he turned and left into the dark cave. I felt cold inside for not what I had said, but how they came out and the way the words affected him.

—

DPOV

I was irritated beyond means, I was trying to do something nice for the girl and she goes and eats all the bananas! Then things just kept spiraling out of control, the dreams have only been fueling my frustrations and being close to her, but not _close_ was torture. I wanted to apologize, instead, I pushed her away and she lashed out. She looked so happy after the pipes started working correctly, and I ruined it with my mood.

I slouched into one of the bamboo chairs we had made, I smile at the memory. It was tough at first and Chloe was growing frustrated with the dinky shank I gave her. So I tried to guide her with the sharper one, and prevent any injuries. Being around her made me feel not so alone, I was glad that I wasn't alone in this mess.

I looked at all the bamboo that needed to be cut and sighed, I wasn't up for this right now. All the bitching today has made me feel lethargic, I should take this opportunity while Chloe's gone to get some shut-eye. She wouldn't believe me if I told her that she talks a lot in her sleep, most of it was gibberish, but some nights she called out for people. Her dad, Aunt Laurel or something, and sometimes her mom, although to my understanding she died when Chloe was a child. I feared that I would someday become like that, so overwhelmed in the grief of losing everybody, I couldn't let her see me that low.

 _"Derek?" Chloe's voice rang out throughout the tunnels, it was dark, but at one end there was a glowing light. "Derek? Are you coming?" Her voice seemed to flow around me, like music notes in cartoons. I followed the light, I heard a faint noise— was that music? I rounded the corner and nearly fell to my knees._

 _Chloe was propped up on one side laying across the tarp, the light from the fire danced across her tan skin. The light caught her curves better than any light I've ever seen._

 _"There you are!" She beamed up at me, her smile popping out the dimple on her left cheek._

 _"What are you doing?"_

 _"Waiting for you," she pouted her lips and traced an invisible line from her neck all the way down to her ribs. "For a long, long, time!" She stood up and closed the distance between us, her hands quickly found my chest._

 _"Again, Chloe, what are you doing? The last thing you said to me was you wanted nothing to do with me!" She gasped and laid her head against my chest, her hands traveling to my back._

 _"I would never say such a thing!" She gave me a quick squeeze before pulling away. Her blue eyes sparkled as she looked up, they searched my face and rested on my lips. I didn't think, I leaned down and pressed mine against her, she tasted sweet, like peaches. She kissed back with as much hunger as I had, I wanted her, all of her. She yanked at my shorts, I watched as she attempted to unbutton the top, her hands flawlessly teasing me the whole time._

 _Once my shorts were out of the way, I pushed her back down on the tarp, all while keeping our kiss in contact. I used my knee to spread her legs apart and felt her gasp against my lips. I took that moment to move my kisses to her neck, I grabbed a small portion of her skin in between my teeth and nibbled gently. She moaned and grabbed ahold of my hair, pulling my face harder into her flesh, her other hand dragged down my back, her nails scratching along the way._

 _I bit harder and pressed my knee against her_ _ **mound,**_ _she moaned and directed my face back to hers. She kissed me and bit my bottom lip as she pulled away, she wiggled again my knee and smiled._

 _"Whatcha waiting for?"_

I jolted awake, confused, sweaty and even more frustrated than before. The room felt like literal hell, the air was so dry I could barely swallow my own spit. I stood up and swayed a little bit, I was about the exit the room tunnel when I looked down at the tent in my shorts, great. Maybe swimming with her naked was a bad idea, I could barely control myself during the whole activity, and now my dreams were full of her, completely naked.

I shook the thoughts out of my head and tried to calm everything down, deep breathing usually did the trick, but that was before being forced into celibacy. It's been nearly a whole year of no sex, even I hated to admit it, but Sam and I had a good sex life. The whole relationship was a sham, but at least I had that, and before Sam, I didn't really think much about it. I usually kept myself busy with school and work, I rarely had the energy at the end of the day to shower, let alone worry about sex.

Work, I could start working on the bamboo, a lot needed to be sliced and hollowed out, it would be a good distraction. Or better yet, I could do some actual labor work and start digging out the area for the tub. I headed towards the tunnel only noticing it has gotten darker outside when I came out the bottom. The sun must have set already, so where was Chloe?

No, she can take care of herself, the whole point of coming down here was to get to work and take my mind off of her. Running off to look for her was not going to help, and she'd probably just get pissed, claiming I'm enforcing a curfew.

I grabbed one of the sticks we've been using as a shovel and began taking out my frustrations with the dirt. I let all my anger from this whole time we've been stuck on this island out, and didn't stop until I was about knee deep below the surface. I then started making the hole wider, I intended on making a bathing hole, something both of us could relax in. Not together or anything, I'm tall and I would need the room.

After making decent enough room, I started forming a pit of out the dirt but keeping it inside the tub layout. I hoped that if we had a fire going in the water, then it would warm it up, and we'd have a bath of sorts.

I stepped out of the six-foot hole and inspected my work, it was far from finished, I still had to lay down a clay type substance so the water won't leak out, or become absorbed by the dirt. The bamboo would be laid out along the bottom of the tub, it has a softer feeling than clay.

I looked down at my legs, sweaty and covered in dirt, it was nearing dinner time anyway. I could take a quick dip in the lake and then see if the traps caught anything. I headed down the tunnel that leads to the waterfall, there was a faint blue hue casting off the water from the moonlight.

I shed my shorts and walked out from under the waterfall, it was a drastic change from the heated cave to the freezing water. I blinked a couple of times as the water dripped from my hair into my eyes, there was something white in the middle of the pond, the moonlight seemed to beam right down on… her.

It was Chloe, swimming on her back, the moonlight bouncing off her olive-hued skin. I hesitated before shaking the doubts away and plunged in, I quickly swam towards her, gliding flawlessly on the water.

"Hey," I huffed as I reached her, she quickly tucked her hips under and straightened her posture so only her shoulders and up were out of the water. I resisted the urge to say something about it, I've seen her naked plenty of times, and I know she has seen me naked too. Saying stuff like that seemed to embarrass her.

"Are you in a better mood?" She met my gaze for a second and then looked away, her eyes were puffy. Had she been crying? Because of me? I stepped closer and sank until we were eye level

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine… I feel bad for what I said earlier, I'm sorry." I knew she was just pissed when she said those things, and I have been working her hard lately, but I couldn't help but feel hurt at the time.

"S'okay," I grunted.

"Are you going to explain to me why you had an attitude in the first place?" The moonlight seemed to keep just her illuminated, her face, and especially her eyes seemed to sparkle, just like in my dream. But this time she was mad, her eyebrows scrunched together, and her lips became pursed, liked she was pouting in a way.

"Well?"

"Because I'm frustrated!" I blurted, it was just in the heat of the moment, I was tired of holding it all to myself.

"About what? I get frustrated too and you don't see me taking it out on you! Expect for earlier… but that's because you work, work, work and you don't ever relax.

Just do what I do and take a breather or a swim…" I rolled my eyes and impatiently moved from side to side.

"It's not something that a swim will take care of, trust me I've tried."

"Derek, I thought we already talked about this, we're stuck here, stop stressing about finding a way off." She placed her hand on top of mine in a way to calm me, but it really did the opposite. Those hands were desperate to undress me in my dream, they clawed my back… I pulled my hand away, and the look that flashed on her face, even for a brief second, nearly broke my heart.

 _"What's the use of being shy when we're stuck with each other?"_ My own words came back to bite me in the ass. When I didn't reply she seemed to take that as the answer and started to turn away, I can't drag this out anymore.

"Chloe, don't go," I had no idea how to explain this to someone, let alone a girl. God, times like this I really fucking wish Simon didn't take off, but if he never did then maybe I wouldn't be having these feelings? Doubtful, but a man can wish. I took a moment to think what Simon would do, and I already knew the answer, he wouldn't think, he'd just do.

This was an odd angle to do this at, I stood straight and closed any distance between us. I didn't give myself time to overthink or over analyze, I gently lifted her chin up and leaned in until my breath was hitting against her lower lip. I placed my lips on hers, I felt her hesitate and then she was kissing me back.

Her arms came out from hugging herself and she placed them around me, I tried not to think about her naked skin being pressed against mine. She didn't taste like peaches, but it was just as sweet. I pulled back and kissed her chin and lead down to her neck, I could feel her body becoming relaxed in my arms, her fingers slightly digging into my back.

'Wait," Chloe panted and pushed me away, "What are you trying to say? You were a dick to me because you want to fuck?"

"What? No!" She raised an eyebrow and pointed to my erection, I looked at her in bafflement. "That's a natural response, I haven't had physical contact in almost a year. You'd probably have the same reaction if you were in my place."

"Then, what is it that's frustrating you?"

"Well, it is partially the burning desire to fuck you, probably just human nature, repopulate the earth type of shit. But that—" She huffed and took off towards the shore, we weren't far out so it didn't take long.

"Chloe?" What the hell did I say this time? Perhaps I was too rash with her, it was hard to tell what would tick her off. I looked down at the raised appendage and groaned, always in the way.

"That's not why I kissed you," I hollered at the disappearing figure.


End file.
